


Hot Sugar

by Frosty_sun



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Confessions, Flirting, Fluff, M/M, Multi, Pining, Sapnap’s pov, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-24
Updated: 2020-11-24
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:07:45
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 22
Words: 50,594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27693206
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Frosty_sun/pseuds/Frosty_sun
Summary: Sapnap had always held a soft spot for his friends, but when he realizes that these emotions could be more than simple friendship, he is immersed into a new reality of confusing and conflicting feelings and pining for something that seems like it’s just out of his grasp. It seems hard for him to believe that all of this started with a single song.Inspired by the Dreamnotfound fic ‘Heatwaves’ and the song Hot Sugar by Glass Animals
Relationships: Alexis | Quackity/Karl Jacobs, Clay | Dream/Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), Karl Jacobs/Sapnap, Sapnap/Alexis | Quackity, Sapnap/Karl Jacobs/ Alexis | Quackity
Comments: 187
Kudos: 1438
Collections: Cute works





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first time writing anything on this website so I apologize if anything is a bit off in any way. I would prefer if this was not shared with the cc’s in any way, but if they do find it I won’t be too upset, however if they are discomforted by it in any way I will discontinue this fic. Also, do NOT share or upload this to any other site or I will discontinue it. Anyways, I hope you enjoy! Also check out the song Hot Sugar by Glass Animals, I think it somewhat fits this story and even if it doesn’t, it’s a really good song!

  
The light from the computer screen faintly illuminated Sapnap’s features as he connected to a Discord server with Quackity and Karl, who were playing Minecraft in the Dream SMP server with Fundy and Wilbur, who were in their own separate voice calls, streaming probably. An amused smile dawned on Sapnap’s face when he entered the call, hearing Quackity messing around with his mic to autotune his voice in different ways along with Karl’s somewhat panicked and nervous laughter. “Sapnap!” Karl exclaimed suddenly, and Sapnap snapped to attention. “Sapnap help me.” Karl said, and Sapnap leaned forwards in his chair, looking around the world to see if he could spot Karl. “Yeah, where are you?” He asked.

Karl’s reply was cut out by a loud auto tuned, “Kaaarrrrrllllll!” from Quackity’s end of the call. “-in L’manburg!” Sapnap then heard Karl shout, and Sapnap moved his character around yet again, jumping up onto Tommy’s house near where he’d entered the game. “Ok, so am I but  where?” Sapnap questioned. “By Schlatt’s grave!” Karl called out just before Quackity let out another “Kaaaaaarrrrrrrrlllllll!” Sapnap’s smile grew as his fingers danced across his keyboard, character jumping down the cliff near the bench, stopping himself from taking damage by placing water just before he hit the ground. 

As Sapnap ran through the world, Karl’s avatar soon came into view, jumping across the stair blocks that had been placed as seats and running around the smaller portrait of Jschlatt as Quackity came into view as well, enchanted sword in hand as he chased after Karl, continuing to call out to the other man in somewhat amusing, somewhat terrifying autotune while trying to attack him. 

While Quackity’s avatar ran after Karl’s, Sapnap gave chase to Quackity, trying to attack him or at least divert his attention from Karl to himself. “Quackity come onn, is this how you treat your,” Sapnap paused for a brief moment as he thought over his words, “husband to be.” He heard Karl make a noise in agreement as his avatar jumped in circles around Quackity’s now still character as he broke away from the game to laugh, voice still amusingly altered. Sapnap felt a laugh bubbling up in his own throat as well, his deeper voice mixing with Quackity’s contagious shrieks. 

In the time that they’d all been in the SMP together, in-game Quackity had had two other fiancé’s, both of them now ex’s, with one of them being Schlatt, who ‘died’ during the War, but now he, Sapnap, and Karl were all engaged. When Quackity finally recovered and returned to the game, Karl’s avatar was crouching halfway behind the podium near where Schlatt’s body was, effectively hiding his name tag so that Quackity wouldn’t be able to spot him if he didn’t look hard enough. “Judging by your reaction I’m guessing that you forgot that we’re engaged?” Sapnap said, and Quackity turned his character toward’s Sapnap’s. “Well, I mean- kind of.” Quackity told him, voice effect gone, and Sapnap turned away from him, his screen now facing the river. “How could you?” He asked in mock offense, small chuckles escaping his mouth and betraying his pretend irritation. 

More wheezes came from Quackity’s end and he moved the sword out of his hand to punch at Sapnap, taking away two and a half hearts before Sapnap ran out of his range. “Yeah, okay, well listen here, sorry I forgot, I’ve kinda been preoccupied the past few days.” Quackity exclaimed as he bombarded Sapnap’s avatar with more punches. “Oh yeah?” Karl questioned as he ran out from his hiding spot, joining Sapnap as he raced by him. “What’s going on?” Sapnap asked, and Quackity fell silent for a second or two before replying. “It’s nothing.” He said, and the two dropped the subject.

Sapnap hoped something wasn’t wrong, and he didn’t really think that there was, but he’d never heard Quackity say that he was ‘just preoccupied’. Sapnap fell still for a moment, allowing Quackity, who’s auto tuned voice was back, and Karl to pull ahead of him in the game, Quackity chasing a panicked Karl most likely to the Holy Lands so that Quackity wouldn’t be able to kill or harm him. 

“Hey Sapnap, you good?” Karl asked, snapping Sapnap out of his thoughts. “Yeah, sorry, where are you guys?” In response to his question, Sapnap was met with a loud, “Ooooooooooohhhhhhhh Kaaarrrrrlllll~!” from Quackity, and then there was a startled shriek from Karl that was swiftly followed by him screaming, “No! No no no no no, please- please, no-!” Assuming that Quackity had somehow prevented Karl from reaching the Holy Lands, Sapnap continued in the direction that they’d been running before he’d stopped.

It didn’t take long for Sapnap to come across Quackity and Karl yet again, and he could also see Fundy’s character in the background, along with the Holy Lands, which were now only a small distance away. Karl’s avatar was bounding across the ground, Quackity’s following closely behind him, hitting him with his sword and continuing to yell in the voice call. Sapnap heard the sound of another person chiming into the call, and as Quackity proceeded to torment Karl, Sapnap heard Fundy ask, “What the fuck is going on?” Through chuckles Sapnap attempted to reply, not fully knowing what to say since he hadn’t been in the call when the conflict had first started, but he assumed that it was just Quackity messing around. 

Sudden silence from the two brought Sapnap back to the other two men, and he saw that Quackity had succeeded in killing Karl, and his stuff lay spread out on the ground where he’d been slain. Quackity left Karl’s stuff where it was and then returned his voice to normal. “Hey Karl, I think you died.” He said while laughing, and Sapnap heard Karl sigh, but otherwise he remained silent as he returned to where Quackity had killed him. Fundy left the call shortly after to go into a server with Wilbur. 

After Karl got his stuff back, things calmed down tremendously and Sapnap found himself beginning to grow tired as the sun dipped towards the horizon. He’d been up until around 4 in the morning the previous night testing out a code for an upcoming video with Dream and George, and then George had decided to stream, so he’d stayed up far later than planned. “I’m gonna log off and go to sleep guys.” He said, and was met with rejections. “Isn’t it only like 8 pm where you are?!” Quackity exclaimed, and Sapnap exhaled dejectedly. “Yeah.. I stayed up super late last night though so I’m pretty worn out.” He replied, and Karl made a noise in acknowledgement. “Alright, well, goodnight.” 

After Sapnap left the call and the SMP, he turned off his PC and stood, stretching his arms behind his head before he was interrupted by a notification from his phone. Karl had texted him something.  _ “Found this song earlier, reminded me of you. Give it a listen.”  _ Above that was a link to a song by Glass Animals titled ‘Hot Sugar’. Grabbing his earbuds from the desk next to him, Sapnap pulled off the hoodie he’d been wearing and changed into a clean short sleeve shirt before putting in the earbuds and playing the song. 

_ “Long black tulips.” _

Sapnap wondered how this song had reminded Karl of him as he left his room, stopping to stoop over and lift one of his cats, Lily, into his arms.

_ “Born in your blue tints.” _

_ “Lemongrass eyelids.” _

Sapnap entered his kitchen and set the cat down on the counter, running his hand down her back a couple times before opening his fridge and taking out a carton of eggs.

_ “Smoke in your slick lips.” _

_ “Chocolate chapstick.” _

_ “Backbeat strat flips.” _

A little confused, Sapnap proceeded to turn his oven on, setting the burner at a low heat before waiting for the pan to get hot enough, nodding his head to the song’s beat. It was a good song, and he’d probably add it to his Spotify playlist later on. As he listened to the song, he began to drift off, thoughts flocking to Karl and Quackity like birds to bread scraps. Today had been an interesting day on the SMP, and Sapnap relished the moments that he could spend with his friends, or in this case, his ‘fiancé’s’. 

He let out an amused exhale that was partially accompanied by a small giggle as he thought back to the day’s events and leaned against his counter. It was a Saturday, so Sapnap didn’t have to worry about waking up early the next day, but he still wanted to get to sleep earlier than usual for the sake of keeping his sleep schedule somewhat normal during the school months. Luckily though it was almost summer, so soon he wouldn’t have to worry about his sleep schedule for a couple months.

_ “Hot sugar in the afternoon.” _

_ “I wish that we could be real too.” _

_ “Hot sugar in the afternoon.” _

_ “I wish that we could be real too.” _

Sapnap paused for a moment, face scrunching up in confusion. 

_ “Reminded me of you.”  _

Sapnap felt his face begin to heat up and pondered if he was drastically overthinking Karl’s interpretation of the song .  He then sighed, shaking his head to try and stop himself from thinking too much about things that probably weren’t meant to be taken like that.

_ “So cool but we don’t talk.” _

_ “Hotels and alcohol” _

_ “Pool paintings on the wall.” _

_ “Hot rubber on the tar.” _

A notification from his phone snapped Sapnap out of his thoughts, and he rushed to see what it was, a small part of him thinking it was Karl again, but he was wrong. It was just a Twitter message informing him that Dream had just tweeted something. Shaking his head, Sapnap ran a hand through his hair as the song concluded.

_ “I don’t wanna be around you.” _

_ “Just wanna be like you.” _

_ “I don’t wanna be around you.” _

_ “Just wanna be like you.” _

_ “So cool.” _

_ “So cool.” _

_ “So cool...” _

By now, the pan was definitely hot enough for cooking eggs, but Sapnap wasn’t paying attention. He longed to text Karl and ask him how the song reminded him of himself, but he had second thoughts that told him that doing so would be a bad idea and ultimately end with Sapnap embarrassing himself. “God, you’re so pathetic.” He grumbled to himself, and Lily, who was still in the kitchen with him, looked up with confusion in her eyes. 

Biting his lip, Sapnap pulled his phone out of his pocket, where he’d stuffed it earlier, and opened his messages app, tapping on Karl’s name, when he froze up. He swiftly read through their past conversation and decided to listen to the little voice telling him not to ask, at least for now. “Come on, come on, get yourself together.” Sapnap muttered before slapping his phone onto the counter a little more aggressively than planned, before cracking two eggs into the pan and sprinkling them with salt and pepper. 

The eggs were quick to cook, and soon Sapnap was sitting at his table, his dog, Cash, sitting near his feet, expecting a share of his food. Sighing as he practically shoveled egg into his mouth, Sapnap shot Karl a text before he could change his mind.  _ “It’s a good song,” he wrote,  “you said it reminded you of me??” _ As he waited for a reply, he scrolled through Twitter, starting to read Dream’s most recent tweet about some joke between him and George. 

Before he could like the tweet however, Karl texted him back, and Sapnap felt like his heart was going to pound out of his chest.  _ “It seemed like something you would like. I thought you were going to sleep?” _ Sapnap breathed a sigh of... relief? as he finished the eggs and put his plate in the sink before replying to Karl.  _ “I made eggs.” _ was all that he said. Karl’s response was almost instant.  _ “Why are you making eggs at almost 10 pm?” _ Sapnap chuckled, previous uncertainty being replaced by amusement.  _ “I was hungry, and besides, it’s earlier here.”  _

_ “Yeah, by one hour.” _ Sapnap let out a small laugh and then fought to resist a yawn.  _ “Actually going to sleep now, gn.”  _ Sapnap texted back, receiving a quick  _ “Night.” _ in reply. Sapnap tiredly made his way to the bathroom to brush his teeth, and he found another one of his cats, Storm, laying in the bathtub. He spoke a quick greeting to Storm before brushing his teeth, thoughts beginning to stray towards the song once again. 

With a groan, Sapnap finished brushing his teeth and walked back to his bedroom, clicking lights off as he went. When he entered his room, he plugged his phone into the charging cord next to his bed and kicked off the jeans he’d been wearing, leaving him in his T-shirt and boxers. 

Then, he turned his light off and blindly climbed into his bed and pulled the blankets up around him. He felt a cat jump into bed with him, though he didn’t know who it was, and curl up next to his side. “Do you think I was overreacting?” He asked no one in particular as he scratched the cat behind the ears, earning nothing but a purr in response to his question, and he sighed. “Yeah, I thought so, I probably was.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! I really appreciate your time and if you have any comments or criticism please leave a comment! Tbh I don’t really think anyone will read this but I’ll try to work on Chapter 2 as soon as possible!


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After waking up late, Sapnap spends his day online with his friends, zoning out and accidentally saying something that he might regret.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for the kudos! I was never expecting for this to get so much attention within a day of it being up, but here we are.

The next day wasn’t very eventful at first. Sapnap slept in until 11 and then when he finally woke up he decided to go back to sleep for another hour. It was his phone informing him of a text message that finally got him up for the day.  _ “What time works for you to start the new video?” _ George had asked him. With a groan, Sapnap sat up, his hair disheveled, and immediately regretted it as seemingly cold air hit his bare arms. Was it possible to feel hungover from just a good night’s rest?

Releasing another groan, Sapnap forced himself to stand and grab his hoodie from where he’d tossed it the previous night. After it was on, although his legs were still cold, he felt considerably better. Then, he left his bedroom and made his way into the kitchen. A beam of sunlight coming in through a window illuminated part of his couch, and he noticed Mogwai, his third cat, sleeping in the warmth. 

Tiredly, he looked through the cupboards to see what kind of food there was, and eventually settled on ordering a pizza. After the call to place his order was done with, he fed the cats and Cash before slumping onto the couch next to Mogwai. The sun felt nice on his cold body, and soon he was pleasantly warm. After a couple more moments of soaking in the sun, he decided to text George back.  _ “Probably in an hour, I just woke up.” _ He sent, and then decided to take a quick shower to keep his hungry mind away from food. 

Almost as soon as he got out of the bathroom there was a knock on his door, and he rushed to get it, hair still soaked, but at least he was dressed properly now. He paid the delivery man before retreating into his house and walking into the kitchen, Storm jumping up on the counter to see what he had. 

He set the box down on the stove and opened it, restraining himself for a brief moment to enjoy the greasy smell of pizza before stacking four pieces on a plate and making his way to the table, every animal in the house now crowding around him with expectant eyes. He allowed his hair to dry by itself and as he ate, occasionally giving Cash or the cats a small piece of cheese, he decided to see if George had texted him back. He had.  _ “Sounds good. Join vc with us at 1. _ _”_ Sapnap assumed that by ‘us’, George meant himself and Dream, and texted back a quick  _ “Ok.” _

When his hunger had been satisfied, Sapnap put leftovers in a container and put them in the refrigerator before heading to his bedroom, deciding to go on the SMP while he waited for the next 30 minutes to go by. When he connected to the server, he found that besides himself, Tommy, Tubbo, and Quackity were on as well. The three of them were in a Discord call with each other, and as soon as Sapnap joined, Quackity began spamming “join vc” in the chat. 

“Heeyyyyy!” Quackity practically shouted when Sapnap joined the server, joyful voice loud in his ears. “Sapdaddy!” Sapnap let out a curt laugh, and heard Tommy do the same. “Thicky Vicky!” Sapnap retaliated, grinning as Tommy let out another wheeze. “What’s up?” Sapnap then questioned, looking around in the world to try and locate Quackity, Tubbo, or Tommy, but they were out of sight. “Eh, nothing much,” Tubbo said, “just rebuilding some stuff.”

Sapnap made a noise of understanding and then sighed through his nose. “Well, I’ll have to head out in maybe a half an hour, so-” He then was cut off by Quackity. “What? Why?” He asked, an upset hint in his voice. “I’m making a video with George and Dream.” Sapnap explained, feeling a little bad that he’d joined the server only to have to leave soon afterwards. “Well, come back when you’re done.” Tubbo told him, and Quackity agreed. Sapnap grinned. “Yeah, of course I’ll be back.” He told them. 

The 30 minutes went by faster than Sapnap would have liked, and then he had to leave the SMP to join Dream and George. They were already in a new world, and as soon as Sapnap joined the call, Dream was yelling at him. “Sapnap!” He exclaimed happily, and Sapnap grinned to himself. “Dream!” He called back. After that, it didn’t take long for George to run the code for the video, which caused each mob to drop random items that they weren’t supposed too, like wood blocks or ender pearls, and in random amounts. Their goal was to beat the game without getting wood from trees before the game crashed or they died.

It took about two hours, but in the end, they succeeded in beating the game, with Dream being the one who saved them from failing by not getting killed at some point in time. After Dream was done recording for the video, the three switched to creative mode so they could continue to talk about how the challenge went, like how they usually did after videos.

“God, Dream you’re so good at this, how didn’t you die in the nether when all those hoglins started attacking us?” George questioned, and Sapnap chuckled. “Dream’s just amazing like that.” He said. The three remained in the world for a couple minutes after that, but they didn’t really have anything else to talk about so they weren’t there for very long. 

As soon as they all left the call and the world, Sapnap returned to the SMP. Quackity was still there, along with Tubbo, but Tommy was gone and had been replaced by Badboyhalo and Skeppy. A second after Sapnap joined,  _ ‘Georgenotfound has joined the game’ _ popped up in the corner of the screen, and Sapnap saw George’s avatar pop into existence at the edge of his render distance. 

Yet again, Quackity began spamming the chat, this time with “Sapnap join vc”, and with a grin, Sapnap joined Quackity’s Discord server, and was surprised to find out that Karl was also in the call. “Hey Karl.” Sapnap greeted, and Quackity scoffed in mock sadness. “So you’re gonna say hi to _Karl_ , but not me?” He asked. The faux sadness in his voice would have been convincing if it weren’t for the obvious excitement that overpowered it. 

Before Sapnap could reply, Karl cut into the conversation. “Sapnap, come to Quackity’s house, we need you here.” He said, and Sapnap began to head towards the destination, passing Tubbo near Ponk’s tower, which Tommy and Fundy had relocated. “I thought you weren’t in the game though?” Sapnap then realized, stopping his character on the path leading up to Quackity’s house. Karl exhaled with slight annoyance. “Yeah, for some reason it’s not letting me join. I’m just watching Quackity’s stream to see what’s going on.” 

“You’re streaming?” Sapnap asked Quackity, who confirmed that he was indeed streaming. Trying not to be too obvious, Sapnap opened another tab on his PC and pulled up Quackity’s stream, turning the volume all the way down. When he finally got to Quackity’s house, Quackity began to tell them about a plan that he’d come up with while Sapnap was gone. Basically, he wanted to try and host another ‘game show’ like after Schlatt’s funeral when he’d tried to get Badboyhalo to swear, but ultimately failed. 

“Didn’t that end with you getting stuck in the nether last time?” Sapnap questioned with a smile as he divided his attention between the game and watching Quackity on the other tab, smile growing as he watched Quackity convulse with laughter for a brief moment before he composed himself. “Maybe! Maybe-! But I got out!” Sapnap’s response was drowned out by a triumphant shriek from Karl, and a second later Minecraft informed them that Karl had finally been able to successfully connect to the server. 

It didn’t take long for Karl to join Sapnap and Quackity, and then Quackity was leading them off to where he intended to build the next platform for the game show, since the last one had been taken down by Tommy. As Quackity built up into the air, Sapnap leaned back in his chair, spacing out of the conversation. His gaze was drawn to Quackity’s stream, watching him as he talked to the chat and laughed along with what Karl was saying. 

With their voices in his ears and his brain going on vacation, Sapnap felt something stirring in his chest, like his heart was on fire. He found himself studying every detail of Quackity’s face as if trying to commit everything to memory, and almost without thinking, he mumbled a soft, “God, you guys are so cute.” 

He noticed Quackity pause on the stream, chat confused by the very slight but very sudden change in mood. “...What was that, Sapnap?” Karl asked, and Sapnap realized that he’d said that out loud, and now matter how quiet it had been, they’d still heard him. “What?” He questioned, trying and nearly failing to sound casual. “No, I didn’t say anything.” Sapnap said, heart threatening to leap out of his chest, and then the mood was back as it was before as Karl muttered a quick and slightly disbelieving, “Alright.” Breathing a sigh of relief, Sapnap returned to the game as Quackity began messaging Bad and trying to get him to join his game show yet again.

Eventually Sapnap decided that he too wanted to stream, and he closed out of Quackity’s stream, about ready to go live when he received a text. He looked down at his phone. It was from Quackity. Surprised and confused as to why he’d be texting while streaming, Sapnap opened the message and read it, sucking in his breath as he reread what Quackity had informed him while he felt his cheeks get warm.

_ “I heard what you said.” _


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sapnap has a conversation with Quackity about he said, and comes to realize that his emotions are threatening to overpower him if he doesn’t do something about it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Over 100 kudos!! Thank you all so much, I never expected this to get so many views-

_ “I heard what you said.” _

Sapnap felt utterly embarrassed and nervous. Did he just mess things up between them? Should he deny it or tell the truth? His thoughts were a garbled mess of poor ways to proceed with the information. Without saying anything to Karl or Quackity, he abruptly left the Discord call and tried to call Quackity so it would just be them. With every second that the phone rang without getting answered, more panicked thoughts trickled into Sapnap’s mind.

Finally, Quackity picked up. “Are you still streaming?” Sapnap asked before Quackity could say anything. “No, I just ended it. Why?” He replied, slightly confused. Sapnap didn’t say anything for a couple seconds, letting silence fall over them that was painfully awkward, at least for him, as he tried to figure what to say. “I left the Discord call with Karl, so if you wanna say something, it’s just us.” Quackity finally told him, and Sapnap nodded to no one in particular. “Yeah, okay.” He then mumbled.

“So you heard me..?” Sapnap finally started, wanting Quackity to clarify what he’d apparently heard so he didn’t mess up anything. Quackity sighed through the phone, and Sapnap cringed, knowing that he took it the wrong way and preparing to get flamed, but the harsh words he was expecting never came. “Are you that embarrassed that you’re this fucking speechless? God, get a hold of yourself, it’s not that big of a deal!” Quackity exclaimed, voice a mixture of impatience and something else that Sapnap couldn’t place, but at least he was composed. 

Sapnap released the breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding and sunk into his chair, dragging a hand across his face. “No! No, wait! I think you’re misunderstanding me.” He hurriedly sputtered, hoping he sounded convincing enough. Thankfully, he did. “What do you mean?” Quackity questioned, and Sapnap breathed a small sigh of relief. “You heard me say ‘god, you guys are so cute’ right?” He put out, biting his lip nervously. Everything was on the line here. If Quackity heard something else from him, he was quite obviously screwed. “Yeah, that’s what you said.” Quackity replied, and Sapnap had to stop himself from punching the air.

“Yeah, that was just me talking to my cats, sorry. Storm and Lily were laying in my bed together.” Sapnap explained, even going the extra mile to spin his chair away from his PC to face his bed, and Quackity hummed in response. There was another moment of silence, but this time it felt like something was wrong, because now there were even more things between them. Sapnap hoped that Quackity didn’t notice it as well. 

“Okayyy,” Quackity eventually said, drawing out the word in a way that was not at all like himself, “if there’s ever anything else, uh, give me a call.” Sapnap opened his mouth to reply, but not even a second later the phone beeped to signal Quackity hanging up. 

Sapnap looked back towards his screen after a couple seconds of processing the strange tone in Quackity’s voice. He’d sounded almost let down, but Sapnap didn’t know why or how he’d come to feel that way. Then again, he might not even feel like that, and Sapnap could just be misreading another harmless situation. In the game, Quackity was continuing to build his stage like nothing had happened. But something obviously had.

While they’d been talking to each other over the phone, Karl had gone somewhere else in the world, and Sapnap made no attempt to rejoin the Discord server. Instead, he sat there, watching Quackity’s character place blocks above Tommy’s house yet again. 

Sapnap hastily exited out of his Twitch tab after another moment, knowing that there was no way he’d be able to stream now. He probably looked like a mess. When he began to move his character around again, Quackity paused, and then Sapnap received a private message through the game that just said “welcome back cat boy”. Despite how tied up he felt, Sapnap chuckled and replied with a quick “fuck you”. 

Over the next few hours, Sapnap finally joined the Discord call again and was an accomplice to Quackity’s antics as he somehow got Bad to participate in his game show again, along with Karl, who had just been rebuilding part of L’manburg with Eret, who’d joined when Sapnap was looking away from his screen. Skeppy and Tubbo were also going to be contestants, but then Tubbo had to leave the game before they were ready to start and Skeppy decided to just be an onlooker.

At the end of it all, Quackity had yet again failed to get Bad to straight out swear, but he had somehow tricked him into saying the words alpha, Kenny, and buddy despite Skeppy’s warnings, which of course lead to absolute chaos and ended with Quackity getting killed by Bad in the midst of a screaming match between the two. Bad’s rage and Quackity’s glee during that moment was almost enough to make Sapnap forget the conversation that he’d had with Quackity earlier. Almost.

When Sapnap eventually logged off, it was beginning to get dark, and he’d grown hungry again, so he left his room and wandered back to the kitchen, where he grabbed the remaining pizza slices from earlier and walked into the living room, where Cash tracked him down while he hunted for the TV remote. When he finally found it, Sapnap decided to put on a movie, and proceeded to dig through a stack of DVD’s next to the TV. Finally, he settled on a horror movie that he hadn’t seen in a few months and popped it into the DVD tray, then, he flicked the light off in the room and sank into the couch as the movie started.

As the movie played, he wolfed down the remainder of the pizza, of course having offered some to Cash, who’d jumped up on the couch with him when he’d first sat down. Sapnap remembered more and more bits of the movie the longer he watched it, and by the time the ending came around it wasn’t as thrilling as it had been the first couple times, but it was still excellently terrifying.

By now, the sky was a dark color, black at a quick glance, but if you payed close attention it could be perceived as a dark blue or purple. Stars dotted the atmosphere wherever clouds weren’t covering them up, and the moon cast a sickly pale glow on the earth. Sapnap’s eyelids were heavy, and as he stood and made his way back to his bedroom, he struggled to fend off persistent yawns. 

He didn’t bother turning his light on when he got to his room, he only set an alarm on his phone so he’d wake up on time before he got into bed, being careful as to not crush an unseen cat. He fell asleep almost immediately. 

Over the next week, nothing much happened outside of college other than Sapnap occasionally streaming with Karl or Quackity, but usually hopping onto the SMP for a few hours every night. Each time that he talked with either one of his friends brought him back to the misunderstandings that he’d had with each of them, and so he was never able to enjoy himself to his full extent, but not so that anybody noticed his change in thoughts.

To Sapnap, every time he joined a call with Karl or Quackity or watched one of their streams, it felt like his chest was constantly going to explode, and he always felt far too hot when he was with them, like he was suffering through his own personal heatwave that refused to let up no matter how cold he set his AC too. It had started off small, just a barely noticeable ache in his heart, but it had been quick to grow over the past few days. And it didn’t get better. Every day when Sapnap was done with school and had spare time to be in a call with Karl, Quackity, or both of them, it felt like he just got hotter and hotter. He was melting from the inside out, and he knew that very soon he was going to melt away completely if he didn’t do something about it.

Every day he got closer and closer to the point where he would no longer be able to mask how he was feeling anymore, and as much as he didn’t want to tell anyone what was going on, for fear that they would judge him, Sapnap knew that soon he would have to talk to someone. 

It was now the Thursday after Karl had sent him that song, and he hadn’t listened to it since, but now, as he was finally wrapping up with his college homework for the night, he felt like listening to it, and so he did. It took no longer than a minute to find it and pull it up, because he hadn’t forgotten it’s title. How could he, when all of these weird emotions were caused because of this one song? He plugged his earbuds into his phone and continued to tuck his papers into a folder before setting them on top of the textbook for that class, then, he leaned back in the chair and closed his eyes, immersing himself into the song.

_ “Bath time cool whip.” _

_ “Watermelon juice kiss.” _

_ “Esprit gold rims.” _

_ “Skin so sun-licked.” _

The words were familiar, but Sapnap wouldn’t be able to recite them by memory just yet. He was aware that it was past the time that he usually had been going onto the SMP this week, but he wanted a moment to himself before he had to face the tidal wave of heat, confusion, and longing. Longing for what, though, he didn’t know.

_ “Santal freshness.” _

_ “Hologram glasses.” _

_ “Put it on plastic.” _

_ “You never been desperate.” _

Sapnap opened his eyes, squinting against the sudden brightness of his kitchen, and decided to finally do something about the things that threatened to overwhelm him. Things he’d come to accept as being feelings that wanted to go to another level with both Karl and Quackity. Feelings that he’d tried and failed to push away and kill over the past week. Feelings that he didn’t understand and would trample him if he wasn’t careful enough. 

When the song was over, Sapnap picked up his phone, preparing to text someone, anyone other than Karl or Quackity, to confess, to open up and reveal another layer of himself like a reptile shedding its skin. However, as he was mulling over who to trust with this information, he received a text from Karl himself, and that familiar hotness blossomed in his core.  _ “Still doing school stuff?”  _

Sapnap sighed and composed himself before replying.  _ “I just got done, u on the SMP?” _ He replied, drumming his fingers on his thigh while he waited for a response.  _“No, asking people if they wanna play Jackbox, you in?”_ Karl sent back, and Sapnap replied with a quick  _“Yeah”_ before he stood and stretched, back cracking loudly but satisfyingly. He would confide in someone soon, but not tonight. He would just have to burn for a little while longer. 


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sapnap confesses to a friend about what he’s been going through.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for all of the nice comments, I really can’t express how happy it makes me to get positive feedback on my work!!

  
Sapnap lay in his bed, staring at the ceiling, which was barely visible in the dying daylight. He was spread out on top of his sheets, taking up as much room as he could as the objects in his room cast long shadows behind them. He’d had a long day. Most of it was spent studying for an upcoming exam, and then as soon as he’d obtained free time he’d recorded a video for YouTube that he planned on uploading the upcoming week. Now, he just wanted to go to sleep, although sleep didn’t want to come to him. He sighed and sat up, feeling heavy, like he wasn’t able to move to his full extent, and picked up his phone.

The details were blurry, but he saw that Karl had texted him a couple minutes ago. He must not have noticed.  _ “When does your summer break start?” _ Sapnap read, pausing for a moment before replying.  _ “In a couple weeks, why?” _

_ “We should meet up.” _

Sapnap’s eyes lingered over those words, and he reread them multiple times before typing out a response.  _ “Yeah! What date works for you?” _ Did he seem too excited? While he mulled over his words and whether or not he should say something else, another thought leaked into his brain.  This seems too good to be true . 

His thumb hovered over the backspace button, ready to delete the sentence and type a new one, but before he could do so, he pressed send, sucking up his doubts. It was  _ Karl _ after all, and they’d never met up in person before, so being enthusiastic was completely called for. Right? Sapnap eagerly awaited a reply, staring at his phone screen like he could stare through the messages straight at Karl himself. Finally, after what felt like hours of waiting but was probably only a couple seconds, the bubble showing that Karl was typing popped up. 

Not even five seconds later, Karl had replied to Sapnap’s text, but Sapnap didn’t get the chance to read what he said before he woke up with a start.

Sapnap was breathing heavily and at some point in time during the night he had kicked away his blankets. He was a gross feeling mix of being simultaneously too hot and too cold, and so, with a groan, he stood and pulled on a hoodie to try and even out his body temperature. It didn’t work, so he took it off and tossed it onto his bed before grabbing his phone and turning it on, the sudden brightness nearly blinding him and causing him to slap a hand across his eyes.

After he’d recovered, he turned on the light in his room and sunk down onto the floor, leaning against his wall. It was almost 4 in the morning, but at least it was a Friday night so he didn’t have to worry waking up early for school. Sucking in an anxious breath, Sapnap opened his messaging app and scrolled down the list of names until he found Dream’s contact, which he tapped on, briefly looking over their last conversation before beginning to type out a message to him.

_ “Hey are you awake?” _ There was a moment of Sapnap sitting there staring at his phone before he got a reply. A simple,  _“Yeah.”_ was all that Dream had said.  _ “Can I call you or are you busy?” _ Sapnap asked, chewing on the inside of his mouth as he awaited Dream’s response.

_ “I’ll call you, just a sec.” _

Sapnap didn’t reply, just liked the message. It felt like his heart was going to pound right out of his chest. A couple moments later, Dream called Sapnap, and he answered almost immediately. “Hey, what’s up?” Dream asked, his voice calming Sapnap down slightly. This was Dream. He was trustworthy. “Nothing, why?” Sapnap asked. God did he feel dumb. He’d texted Dream for one reason only and that was because he had something on his mind. Obviously Dream knew this, and Sapnap heard him sigh in a way that told him to get on with it.

“Okay, okay...” Sapnap muttered before Dream could say anything else. “I need your help with something.” He blurted, deciding to get straight to the point. “Alright...” Dream replied, telling Sapnap to continue without actually saying anything. “...Promise me this will stay between us?” Sapnap questioned, and he heard Dream shift in wherever he was sitting or laying down. “I promise.” He said.

“Um, well, I think I have a crush on someone.” Sapnap mumbled under his breath, biting his lip and glancing around to ensure he was alone although the only ones who would be able to hear him were his pets, who were most likely asleep. “Oh, alright, well, I don’t know how good of girl advice I can give-” Dream started, but Sapnap cut him off. “Ah- well, actually, I think I have a crush on a guy...” Dream paused, and Sapnap could practically hear Dream processing those words.

After about three seconds that felt like an eternity, Dream replied. “Pog Sapnap-” Sapnap grinned and suppressed a small giggle at Dream’s use of the word, and he felt a lot better, “you’re so valid, you know that? I’m glad you trust me with this information.” Dream continued, and Sapnap felt like a huge weight was lifted off his chest. “Thank you.” He whispered, and he could hear the smile in Dream’s voice when he began talking again. “You’re welcome, now, I definitely don’t have as much boy advice, but I’ll do my best.” 

Sapnap chuckled lightheartedly. “But you  _ do _ have boy advice..?” He asked suggestively, and Dream laughed, his voice bordering tea kettle mode. “Yeah-? So what if I do?” He asked in response, and Sapnap laughed along with his friend. “So what?” He said back, happy and relived to be joking around and laughing with Dream like this, even if it was the middle of the night. The moment felt surreal, like it was just a dream and nothing more. “So, am I allowed to know which boy has caught your interest, or is that forbidden info?” Dream eventually asked, and Sapnap’s mood promptly dropped back into nervousness. 

“Uh, kinda funny you should ask that because it’s actually...” Sapnap trailed off, looking up at his ceiling. “It’s actually me?” Dream joked, trying to lighten the mood and succeeding. “You wish.” Sapnap huffed playfully, and Dream let out an amused chuckle. Sapnap exhaled to remind himself that he could trust Dream. “Actually, I think it’s two guys.” He finished, so softly that he feared Dream hadn’t heard him, but he had. 

Sapnap heard something creak through the phone, and assumed that Dream had leaned back against something, either a chair or his bed. “That’s awesome Sapnap!” Dream exclaimed cheerfully. “Hey, Sapnap,” he then said when Sapnap didn’t reply, “that’s okay, I want you to know that, alright?” Sapnap clapped a hand over his mouth and closed his eyes tightly to keep himself from saying something possibly stupid. He was embarrassed and relieved, and he felt like crying. “Dream...” He murmured, voice brittle. He’d been so nervous for no reason, and nothing could beat the feeling that he was experiencing at this moment. “Sapnap, listen to me. I love you, got it?” Dream said firmly but supportively, and then Sapnap did cry. 

He didn’t try to hold back or hide in any way, and just leaned against the wall, allowing himself to break open and become vulnerable as tears blurred his vision and his nose became so stuffed that he had to breathe through his mouth, shoulders quivering as hot, wet tears ran down his cheeks and neck. 

Dream said nothing while Sapnap cried, he just remained silent, offering Sapnap silent support until he composed himself. “Sorry.” Sapnap mumbled through a small chuckle after a couple minutes, and Dream immediately started to gently criticize him. “No, no, don’t apologize. I can’t pretend to know how you’re feeling right now, but you deserve to be able to show emotions.” He said, and Sapnap nodded to himself, wiping his neck and face with the bottom of his shirt. “Yeah, thank you so much Dream. I needed to hear that.” Sapnap said in a still somewhat wobbly voice. “Any time.” Dream replied gently.

When Sapnap woke again, it was almost noon, and one of his cats was meowing outside of his bedroom door. He groggily sat up and rubbed his face, which felt gross from the tears that had dried there previously. He got out of bed and opened his door to see Storm standing there, looking up at him, before walking into his room and jumping up into his bed. Smiling to himself, Sapnap walked to the bathroom to wash his face. 

The rest of the call with Dream had gone good, and Sapnap had caved and told him everything, starting with the song and ending with the stupid furnace in his soul that kicked into overdrive whenever he talked with Karl and Quackity. Dream was overly supportive and although he had absolutely no experience in being in a relationship with a boy or a three-way relationship, he’d given Sapnap some pretty good advice and together they’d actually formulated a basic plan for how Sapnap would tell them when the time felt right. 

Dream had ended the call sometime after 5:30 in the morning when Sapnap had abruptly passed out during a conversation, and Dream hadn’t wanted to wake him up so he’d just hung up and texted him letting him know that. Sapnap appreciated the gesture, and made a mental note to text Dream back and tell him that. Sapnap splashed warm water onto his face, rubbing the corners of his eyes with his fingers to clear away the gross tear residue that was there. 

Then, he dried himself with a washcloth and walked back to his bedroom to grab his phone. He shot Dream a quick text thanking him again for their talk and telling him that he appreciated everything so much. Dream didn’t reply, and Sapnap assumed that he was still sleeping, so he wasn’t worried about it. He walked into his kitchen and set his phone down on the counter before rooting through the cupboards, eventually pulling out a box of pancake mix. He set it on the counter and moved to open his fridge, but right as he set his hand on the handle someone texted him. 

He glanced over at his phone, expecting it to be Dream, but it wasn’t. It was Quackity. He didn’t read what he’d sent, and he had no intentions to do so until he was done cooking. Now somewhat distracted, Sapnap pulled out the eggs and set them on the counter before grabbing his measuring cups. Carefully, he put the appropriate amounts of water and oil in a bowl with the mix before adding the eggs and mixing it together. When he was done mixing the batter, he turned his griddle on and greased it with lard. 

While he waited for it to heat up, he caved in and allowed himself to open Quackity’s text.  _ “You free today?” _ Sapnap read, and immediately started to type a reply.  _ “Yeah, what time?” _ He sent, drumming his free hand against the counter.  _ “Now?” _ Quackity replied, and Sapnap contemplated how should reply. He had no plans, sure, but he also wanted to eat breakfast, now brunch, without feeling like he was burning to death. Screw it.

_ “Yeah I’m free now.” _

Would he regret this decision? Sapnap didn’t know, but at the moment he didn’t care. Quackity didn’t reply to Spanap’s message before calling him, catching him slightly off guard, but Sapnap answered almost instantly. “Hey!” Quackity greeted enthusiastically, and Sapnap grinned to himself, feeling his cheeks heat up. “Hey.” He replied. “What’re you doing right now?” Quackity asked, and Sapnap was thrown back to the reality that his stove was on. “Uh, I’m actually making pancakes. I just woke up.” He replied before putting Quackity on speaker and setting his phone on the counter again.

“Damn, you just woke up?” Quackity asked, and Sapnap chuckled. “Yeah..” He replied, drawing out the word in a small exhale. Quackity laughed, “I thought you said you were tired and wanted to go to sleep at 12, now I know you just stayed up later.” He teased as Sapnap poured some batter onto the griddle with a ladle. “No, I did go to sleep,” he responded, “I just woke up around 4 and I couldn’t fall back asleep.” Quackity let out a drawn out “Ahhh, I see.” and Sapnap wondered what he meant by that.

“So, you wanted to know if I was free? Is something going on?” Sapnap changed the subject, feeling slightly awkward but mostly familiarly hot. “Oh- yeah!” Quackity called out, “I was wondering if you wanted to stream with me. George and Dream might join too.” He asked. “Oh,” Sapnap started, “I can’t go onto my PC right now but I can be on call with you if that’s okay?” 

“Yeah, that’s fine!”

“Okay, cool. Are you going on the SMP?”

“I don’t think so, George kinda planned this so I don’t know what he has in mind.” 

Sapnap hummed in acknowledgment as he grabbed a spatula to flip the pancakes. They were perfectly cooked on the one side, so of course he had to celebrate. “Oh-  _ yes!” _ He hissed to himself, and he heard Quackity chuckle. “What was that?” He asked playfully, and Sapnap’s slightly embarrassed gaze flickered around the room. “Nothing, sorry, the pancakes are just cooked to perfection on one side.” He murmured, and he heard Quackity mutter something else that sounded  very similar to something he had said in the past, and Sapnap felt his heart rate skyrocket. “Wh- what did you say?” He asked softly, and he wouldn’t be surprised if he went into cardiac arrest right then and there. 

“I didn’t say anything.” Quackity replied, sounding confused, but there was something else there too. “Oh really?” Sapnap questioned, partially teasing, partially serious, “I thought I heard you say something along the lines of... ‘cute’?” Sapnap exaggeratedly raised his voice towards the end of his sentence and begging greeted with unusual silence from Quackity. 

Sapnap turned the heat off on his stove and transferred his food onto a plate before grabbing his phone. “Quackity?” He asked. Nothing. Now Sapnap was beginning to get worried. “Quackity??” He asked, louder this time, and finally he got a response. “Sorry I was saying hi to the chat.” He said. 

“You’re streaming now?”

“Yeah.”

“Can they hear me?”

“Not yet-”

Sapnap cut Quackity off. “So, did I hear you correctly before? I thought I heard you call me cute.” He was definitely crossing a line. He was crossing a line that he probably shouldn’t be crossing right now, and things could either go good or they could crash and burn. “Okay, listen asshole,” Quackity exclaimed, laughing slightly, but Sapnap could easily tell that he was nervous, “I didn’t say anything, it must’ve been a glitch.” Sapnap closed his eyes and leaned against the counter, setting the plate down as he took Quackity off of the speaker mode. This was his chance to drop the subject. If he dropped it now he could keep their relationship free of future awkwardness. 

Sapnap bit his lip. “Alex?” He asked, voice no more than a whisper. He faintly heard Quackity’s breath hitch, and he knew it was too late to drop it. “Are you sure it was a glitch? Or did you actually say that?” He asked, practically growling into the phone. Nothing existed outside of the call. It was just Sapnap and Quackity. If Sapnap focused enough, it was like Quackity was with him in his kitchen, speaking directly to him instead of over the phone from more than 800 miles away. Finally, he heard Quackity let out a breath, and without seeing him he knew that he hadn’t been breathing, because Sapnap hadn’t been either. There was too much tension to breathe. “So what?” Quackity questioned, and Sapnap’s heart threatened to leap out of his chest. And holy _shit_ was he on fire.

“If I really did say that, what would you do?” 


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Content warning for this chapter: Things get a little explicit and there’s an amount of swearing.
> 
> Sapnap vaguely confesses to someone over a call and gives in to his emotions.

  
“If I really did say that, what would you do?”

Sapnap felt like his lungs were constricting, preventing him from breathing correctly. Was this what he had wanted? To get closer to Quackity? Well, he definitely had, he just may have sprinted to get to that line but went far past the where he was supposed to stop. “What would you want me to do?” He asked in a low voice, waiting anxiously for a reply while subtly changing the subject. He heard Quackity let out a soft exhale, and he quickly took the still-hot plate of food, put it in his fridge, and practically sprinted to his room. He could wait to eat, this interaction was far more important. Storm had also left his room by now, so he was able to close his door all the way before turning on his PC. 

“Wouldn’t want you to hate me.” Sapnap then heard, and jumped slightly as he sat down in his chair. He’d nearly forgotten that he was on the phone with Quackity. He chuckled despite the situation. “You think I hate you?” He asked, and interrupted Quackity as soon as Sapnap heard him start to speak. “Because I feel quite the opposite.” 

As Quackity fell silent, Sapnap pulled up his stream and tuned into it, watching Quackity’s face intensely. He wasn’t making direct eye contact with his camera, probably assuming that Sapnap was watching his stream, and although he would only be looking into a camera, the knowledge of Sapnap being on the phone was enough to prevent him from doing so. “You seem nervous.” Sapnap teased, and Quackity released a curt sigh and rolled his eyes. “I’m not, shut up.” He said back, hint of a small smile on his face, and Sapnap held back a sigh of relief to know that he wasn’t angry. “You sure?” Sapnap pressed, leaning forwards in his chair with a small smirk on his face. “I’ve never seen you like this before.” 

Quackity didn’t reply. He just looked down, and Sapnap could see that his face was beginning to turn pink. The chat was going ballistic. “Is he blushing?” “Who’s he talking to?” and “Why is he blushing?” were being spammed in the chat, and a couple times someone even donated to ask what was happening, but Quackity didn’t explain, and for that, Sapnap was grateful, because it meant that Quackity was taking him seriously. 

Sapnap chuckled, and noticed the small glare that Quackity shot to his side, where Sapnap guessed his phone was sitting. “Yeah? Are you blushing?” He asked playfully, and then Quackity finally turned to his camera. “Chat, I’m not blushing, stop saying that.” He said, but it didn’t dissuade the tenacious audience. “How would you even know?” Quackity then questioned Sapnap, who had to think for a second or two before he replied, “What you’re like?” 

“Yeah, maybe I’m different on stream.” 

“On stream or for me?”

Quackity leaned back in his chair, covered his face with his hands and groaned, not in a bad way but more like in a flustered way. “You’re impossible.” He said, voice muffled by his hands. Sapnap had to look away. He was burning up. If someone were to feel his skin, it would feel like he had a nasty fever, and he was viciously sweaty. “Oh my god...” Sapnap muttered, and Quackity leaned forward again, now obviously red. “What?” He questioned, voice barely louder than a murmur. “I’m a wreck.” Sapnap told him, and he watched as Quackity brought a hand up to his face, cradling his chin between his thumb and other fingers. “Oh yeah?” He taunted, smirk tugging at the corner of his lips. 

Sapnap didn’t reply, instead, he pulled away from his screen and leaned back in his chair. He opened his camera and carelessly aimed it at himself before taking a slightly blurry picture of himself with half of his face cut out of the image. It was definitely one of his worst pictures. He was obviously slick with sweat, the visible parts of his face were bright red, his hair was clearly tousled as if he’d been messing with it, and he just looked ruffled up in general, but he sent it to Quackity without any second thoughts.

As soon as he received the picture, Sapnap watched Quackity pick up his phone to see what he’d gotten. It was very apparent when Quackity saw the picture, because his grip loosened on his phone until it slipped out of his fingers, slid down his lap and audibly hit the floor. He made no attempt to retrieve it or move his hand from where it was suspended in the air. Then, Quackity pressed his face into his palms yet again, resting his elbows on his desk. 

“Sorry, I’m ending the stream.” He said after a couple moments, somehow managing to compose himself enough to show his face before switching back to the screen that showed up before he was ready to start the stream. A couple seconds afterwards the screen went black. He’d been live for only 13 minutes. “What the fuck-?!” Sapnap heard Quackity explode as he picked up his phone. “You fucking asshole, you should have warned me-!” 

“Warned you about what? That I was going to send you a picture?” 

_“_ _ Yes!” _ Quackity exclaimed harshly. “What gives you the right to do this shit to me?” Sapnap felt something different stirring in his chest, something much more dangerous than before. “What? You liked it a little too much?” He teased, changing the subject yet again and biting his lip to distract him from how sweltering everything felt. He was definitely pushing things now, maybe a little too far... 

He heard Quackity groan a small “Oh my god.” and his heart felt like it was going to leap out of his chest. “You  had to do that in front of all of those fucking people?” Quackity eventually growled, and Sapnap tilted his head back to look up at his ceiling. “Maybe I wanted to see you.” He replied. “See me get like....  _ that, _ in front of the stream?” Quackity retorted, but Sapnap knew he wasn’t angry. If he was angry, he would have hung up. “Like what?” Sapnap asked.

“Shut up.”

“Answer me, please?”

“No,” Quackity grumbled, “in your dreams.” 

Sapnap sighed to himself as he stared longingly at his ceiling. He should really stop pushing, or something was going to happen to cause everything to go downhill. “Alex-” Sapnap started in a quiet voice, and Quackity suddenly cut him off. The use of his real name must have been the breaking point. “Flustered? You wanted to watch yourself make me embarrassed in front of 10,000 people?” He was speaking quickly, and in a lower tone, like he didn’t want anyone else to hear him. Sapnap felt like he was covered in oil and someone was holding a match dangerously close to his body. One wrong move here would set him ablaze and he wouldn’t be able to control it. “I might have...” He replied suggestively.

“That’s a cruel game to play Nick.” Quackity stated, voice low like a rumble. Sapnap closed his eyes and exhaled sharply through his teeth. “There’s no game to play.” He replied, his voice thick with pining. Sapnap was a glass bottle that was sitting on the edge of a building, and even the slightest nudge would send him over the edge and shatter him. There was a second of silence. “So you just wanted to... wanted to see yourself turn me on then?” Quackity murmured to him, and that was the nudge that shattered the bottle.

Sapnap sunk his teeth into his lip to repress the sound that would have come out of his mouth. He was beyond being a wreck. Now, he was an entire disaster, like a forest fire that had grown way out of control. He sure felt the part. Sapnap didn’t reply right away, but when he did, he didn’t regret a single thing that he’d said or done within the past hour. “Maybe I did.” He said.

Quackity groaned but said nothing. “I want to do more than just see you or talk to you,” Sapnap blurted, “I want you, here, with me, and not just have to think about touching you from hundreds of miles away.” There. He’d put it out there: what he wanted to have happen, but at the worst possible time. Sapnap heard Quackity exhale, and he could detect the grin in his voice when he said, “I never thought I’d hear you admit that you want to touch someone,” Quackity chuckled in a partially teasing tone, “least of all me.” Sapnap groaned at his choice of words. “I didn’t mean it like that-”

“How often? How often do you think about me?” Quackity interrupted.

Sapnap softly rose from his chair and sunk onto his bed as he contemplated how to reply to Quackity. “All the time,” he finally admitted, somehow feeling himself get even hotter as the confession left his mouth, “but... it’s not just you...” Sapnap whispered, as much as he didn’t want too. But he  needed to say that, to get it out there, if he wanted even a sliver of a chance of things working out. “Oh?” Quackity questioned, but not in an upset manner. No, he sounded curious and... slightly hopeful? 

“Y- yeah...” Sapnap mumbled, “you and.. and Karl. You’re always in the front of my mind.” There was a moment of silence in which Sapnap grew very nervous, and then Quackity took a somewhat shaky breath. “I think it’s been kind of a long day-”

“It’s not even 3-”

“S- sorry!” And with that, Sapnap’s response was drowned out by the sound of Quackity hanging up. He put his phone down next to him and lay back, gripping his blankets as he tried to calm his racing pulse. The blinds were closed on his window, so Sapnap’s room was beginning to get dark since the sunlight was no longer shining directly on his window. The call with Quackity had left him flustered, somewhat shaken, and very riled up. 

He then pulled one of the blankets up around him, wrapping himself in it and burying his face under a pillow. Then, he got a text notification. He grabbed his phone and looked at it, hastily opening the message when he saw who it was from: Quackity. He’d sent Sapnap a picture of himself. In the picture, he was standing in front of a mirror. His face was beet red and his hair was messed up and staticky from where he’d probably ripped his beanie off. One of his hands clenched the edge of the sink and the neck hole of his hoodie dipped down enough to expose part of his collarbone. A second layer Sapnap received a text.  _ “Payback for earlier, asshole.” _

Sapnap chuckled and replied,  _ “It’s just me though.” _ to which Quackity shot back a quick, _ “Shut up.” _ before Sapnap saved the image to his camera roll and turned off his phone. Quackity texted him again though, just with a simple but taunting,  _ “You better not get hard.” _ followed by a heart emoji, causing Sapnap to roll his eyes, but he was blushing, and his pants were beginning to become uncomfortably tight...

This was  so bad, he shouldn’t feel or do anything like this, especially thinking about his friends, but at the moment, he wanted nothing more than to cave into what his body wanted. It was a battle between his desire and his reason. “I’m sorry...” He mumbled to himself, voice muffled by the pillow covering his head. Of course, he knew that eventually his reason would be drowned out by his desire, he just didn’t imagine that it would happen this soon.

A text notification snapped Sapnap back into reality, and he shot up into a sitting position. His room was almost totally dark now, and he realized that he’d fallen asleep. He decided to ignore his phone for now in order to eat something, because he was famished. Going all day without eating anything will do that to a person. Still slightly groggy, he pushed his blankets back and stood, exposing the mistakes of a few hours prior. 

Quickly, he changed into different clothes and grabbed the used tissues from his bed to throw them in the garbage since he hadn’t bothered to do so earlier. His mind felt cloudy with shame as he trudged out of his room and into his kitchen, where he retrieved the pancakes that he’d made earlier. He didn’t care to turn any lights on and just navigated through the darkness before he slumped into a chair at his table and just ate the pancakes cold. A glance at the clock on his wall told him that it was only around 7:00, going on 8:00 pm. He’d been asleep for almost five hours. Thankful that a shaft of dim light had been able to illuminate his clock, Sapnap ran a hand through his hair and glared at nothing in particular. 

He felt his face heat up as he recalled the incident around Quackity’s stream, and hated himself for saying and doing those things. To him, though, it was almost a miracle that Quackity hadn’t gotten upset or blocked him on anything. Unless he actually did. Now somewhat anxious, Sapnap rose and stumbled back to his room to grab his phone. The screen lit up when he picked it up, blinding him, and he saw that he’d missed an absurd amount of texts and notifications from other social media’s. 

It was mostly George and Karl trying to get ahold of him asking if he knew what had happened to Quackity’s stream and why he’d never joined their Discord calls or answered any messages. There was a Twitter notification telling him that Quackity had tweeted something, which sent a wave of gratitude that he hadn’t been blocked over his mind. Sapnap also had gotten a text from Dream that made his heart stop.  _ “Did you have something to do with how he was acting on stream?” _ followed by:  _ “Call me.” _

Sapnap also had various Snapchat notifications from George, Karl, and Dream, not to mention the hundreds of Twitter notifications coming from random people with messages mostly consisting of theories as to why the planned streams hadn’t actually gone as planned or why Quackity and Sapnap had been absent from George and Karl’s streams. There was also an amount of posts concerning Quackity’s behavior on his own stream. God. This day just got worse and worse.

As Sapnap headed back to his kitchen, he dismissed most of his notifications and decided to leave them to future Sapnap to deal with. The only person he replied to was Dream.  _ “I don’t wanna talk about it.” _ He sent, and a couple seconds later he got a text back.  _ “Did something bad happen?” _ Sapnap squeezed his eyes shut, not wanting to answer or even think about answering, but he’d done this to himself. He’d decided to text Dream back.  _“No, I mean I_ can’t _ talk about it.”  _ He said, ignoring Dream’s response of,  _ “Oh, I see.” _ as he finished eating and brought his plate to the sink. 

Sapnap also brushed off Dream’s text telling him goodnight as he walked back to his room. He wanted nothing more than to go into a hibernation mode and sleep until everyone forgot about him, but he was too tired to sleep now, and even if he wanted to disappear, there were thousands of people that wouldn’t let him, so for now he settled on going dark for a little while. 


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sapnap spends some time with his friends online as his break from college draws nearer.

  
Sapnap leaned back in his chair, practically choking with laughter as he read the words that had shown up on the screen. He was playing Patently Stupid on Jackbox with Dream, Karl, George, and Quackity, and George had been forced to go with a wildly inappropriate prompt after the timer ran out and the game randomly selected a prompt for him.

Through his headphones, he heard Dream’s tea kettle laugh accompanying his own before they both calmed down to watch George try to handle the situation. Sapnap and Dream were in their own separate Discord server while Karl, Quackity and George were in another. Karl was streaming the game, and the two of them each had his stream pulled up on separate tabs so they knew what was going on with the others. They were in their own call because Dream had wanted to talk to him, but Karl had invited them to play Jackbox in the middle of them texting, so they decided to talk while playing to ‘keep the mood light’, but Sapnap knew that it was actually to keep him from getting violently distracted and overheating until his brain turned into mush. 

After George’s turn was over, Karl had to present his invention before the next round could commence. When his problem popped up on the screen, Quackity went ballistic as Karl sighed. “Believe it or not,” he started through chuckles, “this was the better option.” At that, Quackity was sent into another fit of laughter. “Oh, I know what the other one was!” He shrieked, and eventually he had to be temporarily muted so that Karl could proceed with the round. “Okay, well,” Karl broke off to sigh yet again, “I can’t have anyone over because of the children locked in my basement.” 

Before he’d even finished speaking, Quackity was laughing again, accompanied by Dream and Sapnap. “Oh my god..!” Sapnap gasped as Dream absolutely lost it. Karl continued with his presentation after everyone had mostly calmed down, which didn’t take too long. “Hey, Sapnap.” Dream said as Karl spoke, drawing Sapnap’s attention away from the stream. “Yeah?” He asked. “I don’t want to intrude on your private life but how are you and Quackity doing?” Dream questioned, and Sapnap stopped functioning properly. “No, you’re not intruding on anything, but what do you mean?” He asked softly, his face growing hot. “I’m guessing that you were the reason why he seemed different on his stream?” 

“You were watching his stream?”

“I was, you were on the phone weren’t you?”

There was no point in trying to deny it, especially since it was Dream, and Dream was the only one who knew the full story. “Yeah, I was...” Sapnap mumbled, slightly embarrassed, “and we’re still on good terms, if you’re going to ask that.” He heard Dream make a noise in acknowledgment. “That’s good, sorry, I just noticed that you two stopped being active on social media and I was getting worried.” That was news to Sapnap. “Quackity’s not active on social media?” Sapnap asked. “Yeah, he hasn’t been for a couple days, since the stream.” Sapnap leaned back in his chair and took a breath. Did that mean that Quackity felt the same way as him? He  _ had _ called him cute, and hadn’t they been more or less flirting? If you could even count Sapnap dodging questions to ask more embarrassing questions as flirting. 

“Oh.” Sapnap said dumbly, hating that he couldn’t come up with a less suspicious reply. Maybe directly calling it flirting was going too far? But Quackity didn’t seem like he was upset in any way, or else he wouldn’t be laughing like this, and he probably wouldn’t have even accepted the invite to play with the others after he found out Sapnap would be here. “Yeah, I didn’t know that.” Sapnap said next, and Dream didn’t reply. 

For the next round of the game, Dream and Sapnap had to join the main call, thus putting an end to their conversation. There wasn’t much else to say anyways. The third round of the game required everyone to solve the same problem, and Sapnap was the one that was chosen to pick the prompt. It took him a moment to figure out which one to pick, but he ultimately chose “I’m haven’t been welcome in my local grocery store since I threw an apple at a baby.” because nothing else was funnier and he was running out of time. 

When the prompt appeared for everyone else, everyone, but mostly Karl and George, burst into laughter while Dream let out an amused scream of, “Why are there so many that involve child abuse?!” 

Eventually, the game was over. Quackity had just barely won with $7,300 funds while George came in very close second place with $7,250. After that, they decided to play Quiplash, but George had to leave for reasons unspecified to Karl’s viewers. When he left the call, Quackity made a lighthearted remark about how George had left because he was upset that he’d lost Patently Stupid by such a small amount. By now, it was going on 1 in the morning, and very soon Sapnap would need to log off and go to sleep so he wasn’t too tired for school the next day. 

After an amount of begging from Karl and Quackity tauntingly calling him a pussy, Sapnap agreed to finish the first game of Quiplash before he left. It was a fun experience, and Sapnap was too busy laughing his lungs out to feel distracted by Karl and Quackity. In the end, Karl won, with Sapnap in second, Quackity in close third, and Dream in last place. When the results were shown, Quackity burst into laughter. “Holy shit! Dream you suck!” He teased.  _ “What?! _ How did I lose?!” Dream exclaimed, brushing off Quackity’s remark. Through hardly stifled laughter, Karl replied, “Because you lost to the bot!” which sent Quackity off yet again. “Twice!” Sapnap put in between his own chuckles, and Dream groaned. 

Karl continued to stream after Sapnap left the call, and he and Quackity hopped onto the Dream SMP while Dream left the call to go to sleep. After saying goodbye to the chat, Sapnap shut off his PC and changed into different, more comfortable clothes to sleep in before walking to the bathroom to brush his teeth. When he was done, he tiredly walked back to his room, turning off lights along the way until he was back in his bedroom. Sapnap left his door open a little bit in case a pet wanted to come in during the middle of the night, and then he crawled into bed. He fell asleep instantly.

It was close to 3 am for Karl, and he was beginning to get dangerously tired, but he still kept on streaming after everyone besides Quackity left. At the moment, they were the only two on the SMP server besides Technoblade, who was nowhere near them, and Purpled, who was also far from them. Karl and Quackity had planned to build something, preferably with all four members of El Rapids, but Quackity had insisted upon starting the build now. “Karl, where are you?” Quackity asked. Karl could see his name tag in the distance. It looked like he was near Eret’s museum. “I’m in party park,” Karl said, “Quack, you’re going the wrong way.” He added when Quackity’s name popped out of view. 

It didn’t take long for Quackity’s avatar to appear on Karl’s screen, and a couple seconds later they were together. After collecting materials from both their own and other people’s chests, the two set off, running away from L’manburg in the direction that Karl, Quackity, and George had gone when they’d been streaming a previous time. It didn’t take too long for the mountain that they’d found earlier to come into view, and unsurprisingly, the minimal things that they’d built were still there. Just a small, one block high square with rails on top of it accompanied by another block with a stair block on an inside corner of it, but the place held fun memories. 

(For context, they did this in Karl’s “POPPING OFF WITH GEORGENOTFOUND AND QUACKITY” stream about one week ago from 12, 12, 2020)

After briefly stopping to look around the area, the two decided that it would be a good place to start their project. They left the other random builds alone as Karl went into the nearby pine forest to get wood while Quackity started on the base of the building. Karl’s chat was going wild, asking what they were building. “Chill out chat.” Karl said jokingly, grinning as he skimmed over the spammed, “What are you building?” in the chat. “Are they spamming you?” Quackity asked, and Karl cringed inwardly at his forgetting to deafen. 

“Yeah, they are.” He replied shortly afterwards, and Quackity made a noise of understanding. “Yeah, chat, calm down, it’s just an El Rapids community house.” Quackity then told the chat as Karl continued to get wood. Their plan was to make a smaller, separate nation from L’manburg, while also residing in L’manburg at the same time. Right now, they were just going to build a structure for shared chests and other items. Perhaps in the future it would become more than that, but it was good to start small, in Karl’s opinion. 

After Karl had gotten enough wood, he returned to where Quackity had completely finished the cobblestone floor of what would be the house. Quackity’s avatar was nowhere in sight, but his name tag wasn’t too far away. Karl broke away from his computer to gauge how much Monster was left in a can by lightly shaking it. It was nearly empty. “Alright, I’m gonna end the stream guys.” Karl announced, this time remembering to deafen himself. He was, of course, met with sadness and a ton of goodbyes from chat, but he was able to end the stream without any problems shortly afterwards. Then, he downed the remaining Monster and returned to the game. “Did you end the stream?” Quackity asked, and Karl looked around the area in the game as he answered, “Yeah, I’m going to sleep soon.” 

“Alright, me too, I’m fucking exhausted.” Quackity said through a perfectly timed yawn. “God, you sound tired.” Karl replied, and Quackity let out a small huff of amusement. “No shit,” he jokingly said back, “but before you go I wanna ask you something.” Quackity’s avatar ran back to the base of the build to stand in front of Karl’s, a wooden axe in his hand. “Yeah, what’s up?” Karl asked, and Quackity hesitated for a couple moments before replying, trying to figure out how to phrase his words. “What do you think about Sapnap?” He finally got out, and Karl heard him hit his desk in annoyance, most likely from him not liking the way his question came out. 

“Well, he’s my friend, I like him a lot,” Karl started, confused as to why Quackity had asked, “he’s funny and he’s a good guy.” There was a moment of silence. “Why do you ask? Are you guys fighting or something?” Karl broke the silence to ask. Quackity hastily replied, “What? No, no no no, we’re not fighting!” and Karl held his hands up in defense although no one could see him. “Okay, okay, but seriously, why do you ask?” Quackity once again feel silent for a couple seconds before Karl heard him suck in a breath. “What if we met up?” Quackity blurted, and Karl didn’t reply right away, caught off guard. “Like, us? Yeah, absolutely!” He eventually said, but Quackity cut him off before he could get anything else out. “No, no.. well, I do mean us two, but also Sapnap. What if the three of us met up?” 

“Oh, yeah, of course, that’d be awesome!” Karl replied, and Quackity was thankful that he was just as enthusiastic as he was beforehand. As Quackity attempted to reply, he was yet again overtaken by a yawn. “Let’s talk more about it tomorrow, okay?” Karl offered, and Quackity thankfully agreed. “Yeah, I’m going to sleep.” Quackity replied, and within the next couple minutes both of them had left the game and the call. 

The next day, when Sapnap was done with school, he went onto to his PC to get onto the Dream SMP after spending some time with his pets. When he joined the game, Eret, Puffy, Ranboo, Bad, and Sam greeted him in the chat. Sapnap checked the game settings to see who else was in the game, and was surprised to see how many people were actually here. Besides those who greeted him, Tommy, Wilbur, Dream, and Antfrost were all in the server as well. He’d entered the game where he’d left off, near Party Island, and immediately Sam’s avatar ran up to him, punched him, and then gave him food. 

Sapnap chuckled to himself. “Thank you!!” He said in chat, and Sam replied with, “:)” before running away. After that, Karl joined the game at the same time as Tommy left the game. “KARLLL!!!” Sapnap wrote in chat, accompanied by other enthusiastic greetings from almost everyone. “Hii!!” Karl sent back as Sapnap scanned the surrounding area to see if he could spot Karl’s character. When he didn’t see Karl, Sapnap began running around L’manburg, trying to find someone, but nobody besides Wilbur and Ranboo was in the area. 

Just as Sapnap was about to ask Karl where he was, his avatar appeared next to him, punching him to get his attention. “Join vc.” Karl private messaged Sapnap, and he quickly joining Karl’s discord server. “Hi!” Sapnap said happily. “Hey! Follow me.” Karl replied before turning away from Sapnap’s avatar and running towards the world spawn. Sapnap followed him, wondering where he was being taken. Neither one said anything, but soon enough they were at the place where Karl and Quackity had started building the community house. “It’s the El Rapids community house!” Karl exclaimed as Sapnap ran over to look at it. “Sorry we started building without you and Gogy, Quackity insisted on it.” 

“That’s fine!” Sapnap replied, “It looks awesome so far!” The floor was done, and someone had started on the walls already. There was a bed, double chest and crafting table not far from the house, and Sapnap set his respawn point before looking in the chest. “Quackity must have been on earlier, when I got off last night there weren’t walls.” Karl explained, and Sapnap closed out of the chest. There wasn’t anything useful in there anyways, just wool, extra cobblestone, coal, string and spruce saplings. 

“How tall is it gonna be?” Sapnap asked as he ran to the forest to get wood. Karl hummed as he thought over it. “Not  too tall, maybe one or two floors, probably less than twenty blocks high.” He replied after a second or two. “Ah, alright, cool.” Sapnap said. His wood gathering went rather quickly, as he had a netherite axe, and soon enough he was able to return to Karl to help build the community house. 

When they got the walls done, Karl left to go find some sand to make glass, leaving Sapnap with the unfinished build. While he waited for Karl to return, Sapnap crafted a couple furnaces and started digging a mine into the ground to find more coal. Luckily, Sapnap came across a mineshaft, and excitedly gave the news to Karl. While Sapnap explored the mineshaft, Karl returned with sand and made as much glass as he could with the meager amount of coal that had been in the chest before joining Sapnap underground. 

While they mined, Tommy joined the game again, along with George, and Ant, Wilbur, and Puffy all left over the course of a few minutes. Karl and Sapnap spent about an hour in the caves that they’d come across, and they got lost on the way back up, so eventually they had to dig up in order to get out. When they got out, Karl had George join the Discord call and told him to come to where he and Sapnap were so that they could all finish the community house that night. It didn’t take too long to finish it, but the process hadn’t gone by too quickly either, but nonetheless, the three of them were proud of their creation when it was done. 

“That took longer than I thought it would, if I’m being honest.” Sapnap said, and George agreed. After that, George started making a farm while Karl and Sapnap put torches around the area to prevent monsters from spawning. Eventually as the end of the day (at least for Sapnap) approached, more and more people left the server, and soon it was just Sapnap, Karl, Ranboo, Eret, and Sam. When Karl and Sapnap were finally satisfied with the structure, Eret joined their vc. “Hey guys.” He greeted. “Eret! Hi!” Karl replied happily. “What’s up?” Sapnap asked. Sapnap was relieved that someone else had joined their call. Without George here it had gotten harder to keep himself distracted. 

“I’m gonna stream and I was wondering if you guys wanted to play Jackbox, I’m going to ask Sam and Ranboo as well.” Eret said. “I’d love too!” Karl exclaimed, and Sapnap decided to join in too. He hadn’t played Jackbox with Ranboo or Sam before, so it was bound to be a pleasant experience despite the fact that he’d played it almost too much over the past few days. “Great! I’ll send you a message when we’re ready.” Eret replied before going to different call, leaving Karl and Sapnap to themselves yet again. “I’m never played Jackbox with Sam or Ranboo before.” Karl stated, and Sapnap agreed. “Same here, do they even have it downloaded?” 

“I’m not sure, maybe.” 

“Well, I hope they can join us.” Sapnap said as he put some things into one of the chests in the game. “Me too.” Karl said, and then they both fell awkwardly quiet. Thankfully it wasn’t quiet for long, as Eret invited them to another call with Sam and Ranboo. “Hey guys!” Ranboo called out as Karl and Sapnap entered the call. While they waited for Eret, who had most likely deafened himself to greet his audience, the four of them chatted amongst themselves. “Have you played Jackbox before?” Sapnap asked. “I have not, actually, but I kind of know how it works.” Ranboo responded. “Same here Ranboo,” Sam put in, “We can figure it out together.”

The first game they played was Quiplash, since it was relatively easy to figure out, and Sam and Ranboo got the gist of it right away. In the first round, Karl took the lead, with Eret in second, Ranboo in third, and Sapnap in last place. The second round went better than the first since everyone now knew exactly what to do, and Sapnap jumped to second place after practically destroying Sam when his response to the prompt “The worst thing to bring up on a first date.” had been “Georgenotfound.” Nobody in the call, Sapnap himself included, knew why the audience had been so enthusiastic about his answer, but Sapnap wasn’t complaining.

They ended the first game with Karl still in first place, Sapnap in second, Eret in third, and Ranboo just barely falling behind Sam in last place. They played two more rounds of Quiplash, with Eret and Ranboo each winning a game, before moving on to Talking Points. Sapnap had always enjoyed Talking Points, it was fun, and hilarious to see what the presenters would come up with when shown the photo that their assistant had selected. Luckily for Ranboo and Sam, Eret was selected to go first with Sapnap as his assistant, so they could see what to do before they had to do their turn. 

In the end, not including the awards gifted by their fellow players, Sam got first, Karl got second place, Sapnap got third, Ranboo was fourth, and Eret came in last, but with the added points for the awards, Karl won, Ranboo was in second, Sam was third, Sapnap got fourth, and Eret was still in last place. Everyone wanted to play again, so they did, and like Quiplash, the second round went by faster and funnier than the first. 

Finally, after two other games of Talking Points and one game of Champ’d Up, Ranboo had to leave, and soon afterwards Sam did as well. Because there were now only three people, Eret returned to the Dream SMP server while Karl and Sapnap just hung around in the voice call by themselves. “Hey, Sapnap?” Karl asked after a moment of silence, snapping Sapnap out of his thoughts, which had been revolving around Karl. “Yeah?” He replied, inviting Karl to ask the question that he had. “When does your summer break from college start?” 

_ “When does your summer break start?” _

Sapnap has heard that before... “Uh, in a couple weeks, why?” He replied somewhat nervously. His heart felt like it was going to beat right out of his chest.

_ “We should meet up.” _

_ “We should meet up.” _

_ “We should meet up.” _

Please... Please say that... “Oh, okay, cool! We should-“  _meet up..._ “-plan something.” Sapnap tried not to let his disappointment show as he replied, “Yeah! Totally, like what?” Karl didn’t reply right away, probably thinking. “I don’t know..” he started, sounding suddenly and oddly awkward, “Maybe we can do something together?” Sapnap rolled the words over in his mind like they were a one of a kind fossil and he needed to examine every possible aspect of them. “Yeah, I’m down, maybe a stream together or something? We can throw a party in the SMP.” He said instead of prying into Karl’s hesitation.

Obviously relived, Karl replied, “Yeah! Let’s talk about it later though, it’s getting kind of late.” Sapnap knew that Karl hadn’t actually meant doing just a stream together after he was out of school, but he didn’t want to jump to conclusions and assume that Karl was talking about meeting up. They hadn’t even really known each other for very long, so he might not even want to meet up. But maybe he did, maybe he just didn’t want to be the first person to bring it up. Maybe Sapnap should take another step forwards and cross a line with Karl, like he’d done with Quackity. “Yeah,” he replied, already formulating an idea, “goodnight Karl.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kind of a longer chapter, but I hope you all enjoyed! I might be slower to update for a while since I don’t always know how to continue with a scene and I also have classes, but I’ll keep working on this every chance I get! Also I know that not everything in the Dream SMP roleplay aspect of this fic isn’t canon, I just haven’t been catching up on the streams recently, so sorry about that! And if you have any comments or criticism, I really appreciate hearing your thoughts!!


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sapnap makes certain plans with his friends.

  
Sapnap was finally active on social media again. It had only taken him a week to get over himself enough to tweet something as simple as a cruel joke sentence hinting about him meeting up with someone in the close future. He’d woken up one Saturday morning and had just wanted to watch the world burn for a little moment. After his grogginess faded, he felt a little bad about leading the people on, but he truly did hope that his tweet could become more than words to get tossed around by thousands of people wondering if there was any truth behind them.

Quackity had returned from the shadows only a couple days before Sapnap, so of course he had been the one to take the brunt of thousands of people’s confusion, but he’d handled it better than Sapnap could have if he would have been the one to come back from the dead first, and in a selfish way, Sapnap was glad about that. 

Sapnap had nothing to do over the weekend, but at least the following week would be his last week of college for a few months, and he was very impatient for Monday to come around, although the days after would be loaded with exams and then the Texas summers’ heat could climb up to 100° in extreme cases, leaving him melting. 

About an hour after Sapnap woke, as he was trudging around his house looking for something to do, Sapnap got the idea to go for a walk. He’d been routinely leaving the house over the months, but it felt like he hadn’t gone outside in years with everything that was going on in his life, and so, Sapnap pulled on a light colored hoodie, put a mask, his phone and his earbuds in his pocket and left the house.

Because he had woken up later than usual, the sun was already high in the sky and glaring down on him, causing him to begin to sweat after less than a minute of being outside, but he kept the hoodie on as he set off down the sidewalk, forcing himself to walk slowly so he wouldn’t overheat. As he walked, no specific destination in mind, Sapnap allowed himself to become lost in thought. 

Sapnap wanted nothing more than to meet up with Karl and Quackity, but he was worried that the feeling wouldn’t be mutual. He considered hinting at his intentions the next time they were in a call together, and then thought that saying it straight out would be better. After he’d convinced himself to just text them, he began thinking about just asking them if they even wanted to meet up before begging for them to come to Texas. 

Sapnap kept walking for a little bit before putting in one earbud and playing music to distract him. He paused his steps briefly to press the play button on his Spotify playlist. The first song to play was Hot Sugar, which did nothing to help his Karl and Quackity crisis. Sapnap shoved his hands into his hoodie pocket and increased his pace, trying and failing to zone out enough to stop a deep blush from spreading across his cheeks.

The words hit differently after his development in feelings and having not listened to the song for weeks, but he remained able to keep his friends out of his mind until he ended up next to a gas station. He’d walked pretty far from his house, and his mouth was dry, because like an idiot he hadn’t brought water with him. Sapnap paused the song, removed his earbuds and entered the building, relishing the wave of cool air that hit him as the door swung open. The woman standing behind the counter greeted him, and Sapnap smiled back before beelining to the beverage section. He pulled open a door and grabbed a random Monster energy drink, which happened to be Papillon. Next, he wandered over to a snack aisle, holding the Monster against his forearms to absorb some of its coldness. 

Sapnap checked out with the Monster and a smaller bag of chips after a couple minutes, and then paused inside the store before leaving to put the chips in his hoodie pocket and put his earbuds back in. As he left the store, he opened the Monster, took a sip, and then pressed play on his music.

_ “I don’t wanna be around you.” _

_ “Just wanna be like you.” _

_ “I don’t wanna be around you.” _

_ “Just wanna be like-“ _

Fuck. The taste of peaches remained in Sapnap’s mouth as he began his walk back home, Hot Sugar still playing in his ears. After what felt like hours, but had only been under two minutes, the song was done, and the music faded out before another song, also by Glass Animals, called Heat Waves, started playing. 

When Sapnap finally returned to his house, about an hour and a half had passed, and his legs were beginning to ache, but the exercise had felt great. As he fumbled with his house keys, he heard Cash barking from inside the house, but the barking subsided when Sapnap pulled the door open and stepped into his thankfully much cooler home. Sapnap then downed the rest of the Monster and tossed the can in his recycling bin before pulling off his hoodie and walking into the living room with the intentions to take a nap on the couch, but before he could do so, his phone rang. 

He looked down, expecting it to just be a telemarketer, but it wasn’t, it was Karl. Hastily, he answered, nearly flinging his phone across the room as his hand shot up to his ear. He swore loudly as the device began slipping from his grasp, but he somehow held onto it. “Hello?” He heard Karl ask with concern. “Hi Karl!” Sapnap said back, relieved to be talking to someone but embarrassed that the conversation had begun with him shouting “fuck”. “How are you?” As he spoke, Sapnap sat on the edge of his couch next to a curled up Lily. “I’m doing pretty good, how about you?” Karl replied. It felt amazing to be partaking in a normal conversation that didn’t involve video games or embarrassing confessions for once. “I’m good too, just bored out of my mind.” 

“Do you wanna play a game together or something?” 

“Actually, not really,” Sapnap sighed, “I think I’ve played too much Jackbox this week, I don’t know what I’d do on Minecraft.” He went quiet for a moment before his brain kicked into joke-around-to-hide-your-huge-crush mode. “I’m longing for something physical, Karl!” Sapnap blurted dramatically, a huge grin on his now blushing face as he slid down on his couch until his torso was on the seat part of it and his neck was being bent uncomfortably forwards. “I want you here, can’t you fly out here in like three hours??” Sapnap added after slumping onto his floor. 

Karl was laughing softly, and Sapnap smiled at the sound of his voice. He’d been joking, sure, but Sapnap wanted nothing more than to meet up, but meeting up was a huge step. Maybe it was what they needed though... “Unfortunately I don’t think there are any open flights today, and besides, I wouldn’t want to distract you during your big exam week.”Karl told him, and Sapnap deflated like an old balloon. 

“But... maybe after this week we can work something out.”

Sapnap jolted up onto his feet. “Seriously?” He asked, not even trying to mask the hope in his voice. “You mean that?” Karl giggled in a giddy, teasing tone. “Ooh, maybe!” He replied. They were both obviously prickling with emotion, and one nudge past where Sapnap stood now would cause him to explode like an egg being thrown on the pavement, except this time he wouldn’t be able to recover properly. “Karl, please don’t tease me, do you seriously mean that?” Sapnap asked desperately, heart thrumming in his chest as his sweaty hand gripped the phone for dear life. “I mean it as long as you want me too.” What was that supposed to mean-? “I want you to mean it as long as  _ you _ want to.” Sapnap said, his voice deeper now, almost like a rumble. Karl went silent for a couple seconds. “Then I mean it,” he eventually said, “I want to arrange something after this week.”

Sapnap sunk back into the ground and set his phone down on the floor next to him before hiding his face in his hands. This can’t be happening. This is a dream. This isn’t happening... Sapnap faintly heard something from the other end of the phone, but he was too far away to hear what Karl had said. He uncovered his face and let his head drop backwards to rest on the couch as he let out a loud groan. After another second of Sapnap trying to process that what was going on was real, he picked his phone up again. “What was that?” Karl asked. 

“I- I can’t believe this is happening.” Sapnap moaned as he ran a hand through his hair. “I- I... I, holy shit-“ Sapnap sputtered, and Karl interrupted him with an amused laugh. “Dude, calm down, there’s still at least a week before we need to worry about it.” He chuckled, and Sapnap bit his lip to stifle a reply that he might regret later, turning his words over in his head before stating awkwardly, “I want to worry about it now. Waiting a whole week without something solid will kill me.” Karl went silent, and then Sapnap heard him typing on his computer. “Um, Karl!” Sapnap suddenly exclaimed, and Karl’s typing stopped. “Yeah?” He asked. “Uh, I don’t... I want to invite Alex too.” 

“Really?”

“Yes...” Sapnap cringed, hoping that he didn’t just ruin everything, but to his relief, when Karl let out a small laugh, he didn’t sound mad or upset in any way. “You wanna know something, Nick?” Karl asked, and Sapnap stopped breathing. He was dangerously warm, dangerously close to doing something he might regret. Unable to speak a proper reply, Sapnap waited for Karl to continue. “Alex and I were actually talking about meeting up with you soon too.” Karl broke off to chuckle, and Sapnap felt like he was floating. He had died and this was heaven. “He’s gonna be so mad that we’re making plans without him.” 

“I can add him to the call.” Sapnap offered, and Karl quickly agreed. It didn’t take long for all three of them to be in the call together, as Quackity had picked up immediately, but when he was in the call, Karl and Sapnap fell quiet. “What the hell’s going on?” Quackity asked, “Is this a prank?” Karl was the first one to crack, and burst into laughter. “Alex~! Guess what!” He exclaimed excitedly, and Quackity began laughing somewhat nervously. “What? What are you planning-?” He asked cautiously. Sapnap couldn’t contain himself anymore; he had to speak before he exploded. “We’re meeting up!” He blurted as Karl broke into another fit of excited laughter, and Quackity grew quiet for a couple seconds. 

When Quackity spoke again, he sounded as excited as Karl and Sapnap did. “Seriously? You made plans without me?” He questioned. “No we didn’t!” Sapnap replied, feigning hurt. “We’re actually making plans right now.” Karl cut in, and Quackity sighed, a small laugh behind his voice. “Jesus, you didn’t give me a lot of time to prepare.” He said teasingly. Sapnap loved hearing the two of them sound this thrilled, and he was beyond ecstatic to be making these kinds of plans with them. 

Eventually, they found a date in the middle of June where open flights would be available for both Quackity and Karl to come to Sapnap on the same day. Karl would arrive around noon, earlier than Quackity, who would arrive closer to 4 pm. They decided not to officially tell anyone, including their friends, until they were together, when they would stream on Sapnap’s Twitch channel just to talk and hang out while one of the others could get set up on another PC so they could play games together. They would work everything else out as they went. 

Finally, after weeks of longing, two plane tickets to Texas were purchased. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Little bit of a shorter chapter, I hope you enjoyed! I also have a Wattpad account now, (Frosty_sun) where I’ll occasionally post other fics! And thank you for all the support, I really appreciate it!! ❤️❤️


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Karl finally arrives in Texas, but Sapnap seems to be acting differently than he has before...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Little note before the chapter starts, you don’t have to read this but I saw someone mention this fic in a TikTok comment and my heart seriously went brr 🥺🥺 I’ve said this before but I really love y'all sm, thank you for everything!

  
Finally.

Tomorrow Karl and Quackity would be flying to Texas. 

A loud scream cut through Sapnap’s headset, and he flinched and cringed at the sudden shriek from Quackity. “Jesus fucking-!” Sapnap started to yell, but a hasty scream of, “Language!” from Bad cut him off as his character ran towards Sapnap so he’d hear him with proximity chat. Sapnap, Bad, Quackity, and Dream were playing Phasmophobia, and Quackity had just gotten jump scared by Dream turning a corner and running into him, and Quackity had overreacted. Dream’s tea kettle laugh echoed through Sapnap’s ears as he moved his character around the room, a huge smile on his face after recovering from the initial panic of hearing Quackity’s scream. 

Sapnap was too distracted to play correctly, and multiple times he was playfully scolded for messing things up, but he was way too excited about the following day. He was still worried that all of this was a dream, and he was trying to imagine what it would be like to see Karl in person for the first time ever when he picked him up from the airport. Sapnap didn’t know what he would do then. Would it be too awkward for them to hug? Would hugging make everything  _ more _ awkward? “Sapnap!” Bad exclaimed, and Sapnap was jolted back to reality. “Are you okay?” Dream asked. “Yeah, what’s going on, you’ve been zoned out or something for the past five minutes.” Quackity added, and Sapnap groaned. “Oh my god, I’m sorry, you guys don’t know how distracted I am.” Sapnap mumbled to them, and he heard Quackity chuckle. 

“Distracted because you’re thinking abo-“ Quackity started to tease, but Sapnap quickly turned his character in the opposite direction and started running away from Quackity, causing his words to fade away. The others caught up with Sapnap easily. Dream was laughing again, and Quackity was grumbling something to himself. Sapnap glanced at the time. It was already almost 12 am. “Oh shit!” He exclaimed, earning another “Language!” from Bad. “It’s almost 12 am, I need to go to sleep!” 

Sapnap turned off proximity chat while Karl began panicking as well. As Bad and Dream were saying goodnight, Karl suddenly left the call without saying goodbye. Sapnap had more time to spare than Karl did because he’d already cleaned up his house and he didn’t have to wake up early to get everything set up to leave for a week, so he stayed on for another couple minutes to say goodbye to Bad’s stream. “What was Karl panicking about?” Dream asked, and Quackity let out a knowing chuckle. “Quack, you should probably sleep too.” Sapnap told him.

“Huh? Whyyy?” Quackity pouted, “I can sleep in-“ Sapnap cut him off. “Yeah, and miss your flight.” Sapnap immediately wished he could take it back, but it was too late, Dream and Bad had heard him. “Where are you flying too?” Dream asked, and when met with silence from Sapnap, he turned to Quackity. “You guys aren’t meeting up, are you?” Dream questioned, and hesitantly Sapnap replied, “Yes.” There was a small moment of silence before Dream let out a loud yell. “Let’s go!” He hollered, and Quackity burst into excited laughter as Bad suddenly asked what was going on. “Did you deafen?” Sapnap asked in between Dream and Quackity’s shouting. “Yes, what happened?” Bad asked again, and Sapnap breathed a sigh of relief. Only Dream knew.

“I don’t really know myself,” Sapnap lied, hating that he couldn’t bring himself to tell the truth just yet. “Anyways, I’m logging off, Quackity, go to sleep, and goodnight everyone!” Sapnap then said, and was met with more playful complaining from Quackity, but soon he left the call and turned off his PC. As he was pushing away from his desk, Sapnap received a text from Dream.  _“Congrats! I’m excited for you dude, you better have fun!”_ Sapnap grinned, feeling his cheeks heat up, and texted back,  _ “Yeah yeah, ofc we’ll have fun, have you seen us?” _

_ “Hell yeah, power trio.” _

Sapnap laughed to himself and messaged Dream goodnight before setting an alarm for 9 am in case he slept in too much. He tossed his phone onto his bed and left his room. It was surprisingly light out, as the moon wasn’t obscured by clouds, and Sapnap, who was too anxious to sleep just yet, walked outside without bothering to put shoes or anything else on besides the T-shirt and boxers that he was already in. He shivered as a cool breeze hit his bare skin, but didn’t return inside. 

Sapnap sat on his porch for a little bit, enjoying the moment of peace as he stared up at the stars, fantasizing about finally being able to meet Karl and Quackity without hundreds of miles separating them. He reached a hand out and touched the grass near his feet, and his fingers came away damp. Sapnap could feel his eyelids growing heavy, but he didn’t feel tired yet. He just wanted to stay out here forever, but that was impossible. 

In the end, the cold was what forced him inside. If he’d been wearing pants, or even just socks, he would have been fine, but he was glad that something had made him come inside, because it was now close to 1 am, and he needed to get to sleep. After brushing his teeth, Sapnap returned to his room, which felt warmer than the rest of his house. Sapnap didn’t realize how tired he actually was until he was under his covers, and he fell asleep almost instantly.

An alarm going off startled Sapnap out of his sleep, and he shot into a sitting position. His phone had been buried in his sheets last night, so it took an annoyingly long time for Sapnap to turn off the alarm, but he was so grateful that he’d set it. Hastily, Sapnap got out of bed and grabbed a pair of jeans. He had two hours before he wanted to be at the airport to meet Karl, even though he would ultimately be waiting there for a long time, Sapnap wanted to be ready. 

Sapnap made a beeline to his bathroom and looked himself over in the mirror. He didn’t look too bad. There were minor bags under his eyes, and he probably needed to shave, but other than that, Sapnap looked presentable. He then tugged his shirt off and worked on cleaning himself up before deciding to take a quick shower. 

Although Sapnap had woken up and felt rushed, there was something about standing in the shower and letting the water run down his body that just made him feel like time had stopped, like he could stand here all day, but he couldn’t, or his water bill would kill him. With a sigh, Sapnap ran his hands through his hair, ensuring there weren’t any traces of shampoo or conditioner left, and then he turned the water off. 

Stepping out of the shower was always the worst part, but today the transition from the warm shower to the colder bathroom didn’t bother Sapnap, because he had other things to worry about. After he was done drying himself off, Sapnap wrapped a towel around his waist and picked up his phone to look at the time. It was only a little after 9:40, and Quackity had texted him about ten minutes earlier.  _ “Karlos there yet?” _ He’d sent, and Sapnap had to laugh. The poor man was probably high off of either caffeine or melatonin.  _ “No, he probably just left North Carolina, how much sleep did you get??”  _

Quackity didn’t reply right away, so Sapnap assumed that he’d gone back to sleep and finished getting dressed before exiting the bathroom and making his way to the kitchen. Already it was hot, Sapnap could tell from the air shimmering outside of his windows, and he cringed, imagining how scalding hot the inside of his car would be, but it was nothing that he hadn’t dealt with before. Sapnap had grown accustomed to the Texas heat over the years, this year was no different. 

Sapnap didn’t feel like cooking anything, so he just made a bowl of cereal and plopped down at his table to scroll through Twitter while he ate. Karl hadn’t tweeted anything recently, which was to be expected, and Sapnap found amusement in scrolling through threads of people wondering what he was up too. Then, Sapnap decided to tweet something himself, and set his spoon down to type.  _ “Streaming tonight, DON’T MISS OUT ;)” _

The next hour passed by in a blur, and all of a sudden it was time for Sapnap to drive to the airport. He shoved his phone in his pocket and left the house, locking the door behind him before walking over to his car. He got in and instantly turned on the air conditioning, sighing with relief when a blast of cold air touched his skin. Sapnap fastened his seat belt and sat in the car for a little bit to text Karl.  _ “I’ll be waiting at the airport, text me when the plane lands.” _ He wrote. Karl texted back almost instantly.  _ “Ok, I think I’m almost here :)” _ Sapnap liked the message but didn’t reply. He then set his phone down in the cup holder between the two front seats and glanced at the road to see if there was any oncoming traffic before pulling out of his driveway, and then he was off.

Sapnap’s heart was racing during the entire drive to the airport, but as soon as he arrived he seemed to calm down. He’d parked pretty far away from the building, so it took him a while to reach the doors, and halfway through his walk, his phone notified him of a message. Sapnap’s breath hitched, and he didn’t look at it. He knew who it was. Finally, with his heart once again pounding in his chest, Sapnap reached the door, and he hesitantly pushed it open. The room was pretty crowded, and it was hard to see around the groups of people, but Sapnap recognized him as soon as he caught a glimpse of his fluffy brown hair. Blue eyes. Oversized sweater. Standing there. Right there.

Karl. 

If Sapnap had been holding anything, he would have dropped it, but he wasn’t, so he didn’t. He ran towards Karl, embarrassed and surprised at the tears that were collecting in the corners of his eyes. Thankfully, Karl had the sense to drop the handle of his suitcase just in time for Sapnap to crash into him, nearly throwing them to the floor. The people around them shot them odd looks, some of them being outright disgusted, but Sapnap couldn’t care less. He gripped Karl’s back, memorizing the feeling of the soft fabric between his fingers. His body heat pressing against him. Karl’s hands on his back. 

“Oh my god.. this is real.” Sapnap muttered, and Karl pulled away, grinning profusely. “If you’re like this when it’s just me, I’m worried that you’ll pass out when you see Quack.” Sapnap laughed and playfully shoved Karl’s arm.  _ If only you knew the whole of it. _ _.._ “Yeah, right. Well, follow me, unless you wanna stay here?” Now it was Karl’s turn to gently shove Sapnap, who chuckled. “That was a bad joke, sorry.” He said, and Karl shot him another grin. 

By the time they finally returned to the car, Karl looked like he was melting. “It’s so hot.” He murmured as Sapnap unlocked and opened the trunk. “Yeah, this year’s been pretty hot so far, and isn’t it only like 70° in North Carolina?” Sapnap replied. Karl shrugged. “I didn’t look at the temperature before I left, but it’s definitely hotter here.” Karl said while Sapnap helped him put his bags in the car. Then, Sapnap shut the trunk and moved over to the passenger’s side. He opened the door for Karl, and as he was getting in Sapnap advised him, “Careful of the seatbelt buckle.” 

After Karl was secured, Sapnap got in the driver’s seat and turned the car on. “Want the AC on?” Sapnap asked, and Karl tossed his head back against the headrest of the seat. “Please, yes.” He said. Suddenly, to Sapnap, the controls in front of him were the most interesting thing in the world. He cursed under his breath when he felt his face turn red, and just turned on the air conditioning before driving out of the parking lot. 

“Are you alright?” Karl asked, and Sapnap glanced over at him as he drove. “Yeah, just hot,” he replied awkwardly, “hey, I live kind of near a gas station, if you want to go in and get anything?” Sapnap then offered, and Karl quickly replied saying that that would be nice. The next few minutes were accompanied by nothing but the sound of cold air being blown into the car, and eventually Sapnap had to turn it off because both himself and Karl were beginning to get cold. 

When they reached the gas station, Sapnap pulled in and parked near the door. He then got out and waited for Karl before walking into the building. Almost as soon as they entered the store, Sapnap’s phone began ringing. He paused and let Karl go ahead of him to see who it was, and his heart leapt when he read the name. “Hi Alex!” Sapnap greeted after picking up. “Heyyy.” Quackity replied, and Sapnap let out a laugh. “Oh my god, you sound so tired.” He said. Quackity groaned, his voice deep and ragged with tiredness, and Sapnap bit the inside of his cheek.

“Whatever man,” Quackity grumbled in response, “I just woke up, cut me some slack.” Sapnap rolled his eyes to himself, a fond smile on his face. “Alright Quack, but make sure you sleep on the plane, okay?” Quackity groaned again, and Sapnap heard something creak. “Don’t fucking baby me man, c’mon~” By now, Karl had returned to Sapnap, wondering what he was doing. He was holding three Zero Ultra Monsters in one arm and had his wallet in his other hand. Sapnap mouthed ‘Alex’ to him, and Karl nodded in understanding before moving to go check out. “I’ll pay.” Sapnap stated, and Karl shook his head. “No, it’s fine-“ 

“I want to pay.” 

“Y- yeah, okay.” Karl gave in, nodding, and stopped to stand next to Sapnap. “Wanna talk to him?” Sapnap asked softly so Quackity wouldn’t hear him, but with the rustling going on on the other end, Sapnap didn’t think he would have either way. Karl nodded vigorously and Sapnap handed off the phone before grabbing the Monsters and walking to the checkout. “Just these?” The cashier asked, and Sapnap nodded. “Yes.” He said. While the man behind the counter scanned the items, Karl tapped Sapnap on the shoulder and told him that he was going out to the car. Sapnap gave him a thumbs up. “No problem, I’ll be out shortly.” 

When Sapnap turned back to the cashier, he was given his total, and easily paid with a $20. While he waited for his change, Sapnap glanced out of a window at Karl, who was still on the phone. He was grinning and probably unknowingly leaning into the phone so that his head was tilted to the side. He looked..  _ so cute... _ A small cough from the other man brought Sapnap back to earth, and he turned back to the cashier, embarrassed. “Sorry about that..” He mumbled, trying not to make direct eye contact. 

The man waved a hand dismissively. “It’s fine,” he told Sapnap, “I know how it goes, with the cute boyfriend-“ Sapnap cut him off in a panic, his face turning beet red. _“What?!_ No, y- you’re misunderstanding! We- we’re not- we’re not dating-!” Maybe he would have sounded believable if he wasn’t tripping over every word or if his face wasn’t redder than a tomato, but the cashier chose to spare him further embarrassment by doing nothing more shooting Sapnap a knowing smile and an apology as he hurriedly left. 

When Sapnap slid into the driver’s seat, Karl handed his phone back. “How’s he doing?” Sapnap asked, and Karl giggled. “Pretty panicked I think. The entire time he was trying to multitask so hard.” Karl said, and Sapnap chuckled as he drove out of the parking lot, imagining Quackity hurrying to get ready to leave. “Yeah, I can picture it,” he said, “I just hope he gets some sleep because I have plans for you guys tonight.” Karl twisted in his seat to face Sapnap. “Oh?” He questioned, an eager look of excitement in his eyes. “If you think I’m gonna tell you...” Sapnap started, trailing off teasingly. He wanted to do something special for them, something platonic but subtly romantic. Something like taking them out to dinner. 

Finally, they arrived at Sapnap’s house, and Sapnap parked in the driveway before helping Karl get his suitcase from the trunk. Then, they walked up to the house. Sapnap’s heart was racing, but he didn’t know why. He had no reason to be nervous. Or maybe he had every reason to be nervous. It was just him, his house, and Karl.  _ Karl... _

“Well, welcome to my house.” Sapnap said awkwardly as he unlocked the door and opened it for Karl, who walked in and began looking around. “What do you think?” He then asked nervously. At that moment, Cash came racing out from wherever he had been and began barking and sniffing at Karl, who let out a chuckle. “I love it here.” He said as he turned to face Sapnap. He had such a look of genuine joy on his face that Sapnap stopped breathing. He was aware of how stupid he looked, moving his mouth trying to come up with a reply as his face, his body, the core of his soul turned red hot, but he couldn’t look away. He was like a statue that was condemned to stand there, staring into Karl’s eyes until the other man looked away, his cheeks also now a shade of pink.

_ Pathetic. You’re pathetic. So absolutely lost in him. _

It was easy to pretend like that whole thing didn’t happen.

_ ...we don’t talk. _

It was easy to move on from the experience. At least for one of them...

_ I don’t wanna be around you. _

You didn’t _really_ see my expression.

_ Just wanna be like you. _

You don’t know how hard I’m falling. 

  
  


_ I wish that we could be real too. _


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sapnap and Karl go to meet Quackity at the airport, but their meetup is interrupted by embarrassment, panic, and a confession...

  
“Your house is nice.”

“Yeah?” 

It had been about a half an hour since Karl and Sapnap had returned to Sapnap’s house, and Sapnap was giving Karl a tour. He still felt awkward after what had happened earlier, but Karl had brushed it off, and so Sapnap was determined to do so as well. Now, Karl was crouched down in front of his couch, scratching Storm, who was sprawled out in the sun, while Cash continued to investigate the unfamiliar man that was in his house. 

It was a little bit after 1:40 pm, and Karl and Sapnap would be alone with only each other for another few hours. “Alex’s flight doesn’t leave for another half an hour or something, right?” Karl then asked, and Sapnap nodded. “About that time, yeah, you’re stuck with me for two more hours.” He teased as he sat next to Karl. “I wouldn’t want to be stuck with anyone else.” Karl replied, and Sapnap noticed that he was slightly flushed again. “What about Alex? Wouldn’t he feel left out?” Sapnap questioned, attempting to joke to hopefully change the subject. It worked.

“Yeah, I suppose you’re right.” Karl laughed as he returned to giving Sapnap’s pets attention. Sapnap smiled softly and reached a hand out to pet Storm, but pulled away after Karl’s hand nearly brushed his. Luckily a text message from Karl’s phone prevented Sapnap from having to say anything further. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and looked at the screen, then he smiled and showed Sapnap.  _ “Getting on the plane, see you in a couple hours.” _ Quackity had sent. Sapnap grinned as Karl pulled his phone away. All of this still felt like a dream, and if it was, Sapnap never wanted to wake up. 

The next two hours passed in a blur. Karl and Sapnap hadn’t done anything too special, just talked and messed around. For a little bit they’d even had a small pillow fight that had resulted from Sapnap jokingly tossing a pillow at Karl, but it had come to a swift end when a poorly aimed throw from Sapnap nearly sent his PC setup crashing onto the floor. Now they were both walking out to the car yet again to go pick up Quackity from the airport. As Sapnap was opening the driver’s side door to get in the car, he received a notification from Twitter. Quackity had tweeted something and tagged him. Sapnap paused to open the tweet.  _ “Omw bby.” _ followed by three heart emojis, followed by Sapnap’s username in blue, all accompanied by a blurry picture of the view of the airport from the inside of the plane. Fans were going wild, as was Sapnap’s pulse. 

When they got to the airport, Sapnap was able to find a parking spot that was closer than when he’d picked up Karl, so they were back in the building in under than a minute after arriving. There was less of a crowd too, but only by a little bit. It took longer to spot Quackity, and Karl saw him before Sapnap did. He was waiting to pick up his suitcase from a conveyer belt and didn’t notice Karl and Sapnap running up to him until they were practically on him. Karl reached him first, and wrapped him in a surprise hug, causing the poor man to jump and nearly slap Karl across the face before he realized who it was. 

Neither Quackity nor Karl said anything as they hugged, Quackity’s fingers digging into Karl’s shoulder blades. Karl crouching down slightly so that Quackity’s neck wasn’t bent at an uncomfortable angle while they hugged. When they pulled away, Quackity rushed to grab his suitcase as it appeared almost out of nowhere beside him on the belt. Then he set it down, turned to Sapnap and smiled. “Hey man!” He exclaimed as Sapnap wrapped his arms around Quackity’s waist. He was so warm, and he felt so alive. Flashbacks to the stream the other week dribbled into Sapnap’s brain, and he squeezed his eyes shut to avoid making eye contact with anyone as he grew hot, like if they looked into his eyes they would be able to see what he’d seen. Know what he’d done. He buried his face in Quackity’s shoulder, wishing he could stay like this until the end of time, but of course that was impossible.

Once again, more people gave them weird looks, but once again, Sapnap didn’t care. “God.. this still doesn’t feel real.” Sapnap muttered, voice muffled by Quackity’s shoulder, and Karl stifled a laugh. “What’s so funny?” Sapnap asked as he forced himself to pull away from Quackity. When Quackity started laughing too, Sapnap knew that he was in for some teasing. “You seriously look like you’re going to faint.” Karl giggled, and Sapnap let out a desperate sigh. “You really do,” Quackity said with a smirk, before adding in a hushed tone, “I wonder what you’re thinking about.” 

Sapnap looked away, desperate to change the subject. “Come on, let’s go back to the house, Alex, did I tell you that I have plans for you guys tonight?” He said as the trio began walking back outside. Karl was now more or less unfazed by the high temperature, and Quackity didn’t even bat an eye at the almost suffocating heat. As they neared the car, Quackity asked, “So what’s your big plan for us, Nick?” Sapnap smiled and looked back at the other two. “Nope, you’ll find out when it happens.” He stated, and when Quackity turned to Karl, Sapnap cut him off with a smile before he could even get one word out, “I told Karl the same thing, it’s a surprise.”

The drive back to Sapnap’s house was pleasant at first, with Quackity sitting in the middle of the backseat to lean forwards to laugh and talk with Karl and Sapnap. It was great. They felt so natural. Although Karl had only been in Texas for four hours, and Quackity for less than one, it felt like they’d grown up together. Like they’d known each other since birth, and they were meant to be together like this. 

Sapnap wished that they could always be with each other, in more ways than one. He wanted to wake up in the morning and be able to drive to either of their houses in less than an hour, he wanted to spend his days with them in real life. He wanted to see them and talk to them outside of Twitch streams and Discord calls. But most of all, he wanted to fall asleep wrapped up in their arms, sharing blankets and body heat. He wanted to be there for them when they were at their worst, and he wanted to raise them up again. Living the rest of his life without these two would be pointless. 

Sapnap hadn’t realized it, but he’d zoned out over time, and he’d been unconsciously driving over the speed limit after switching into another road before Karl shouted something at him to finally get his attention. Snapped out of his thoughts, Sapnap panicked, thinking that he was milliseconds away from murdering someone, but he somehow managed to not slam on his breaks. Instead, he vigorously pumped the breaks and moved onto the shoulder of the road as the car jerked to a stop. Then, he slammed a fist into the side of his steering wheel to prevent the horn from going off. He felt someone touch his shoulder and buried his face in his hands, resting his forehead on the top of the steering wheel so no one could see his face. “Fuck!” He growled, hating how his voice cracked as he spoke. Hating how his entire body trembled. 

Thankfully no cars were in front or behind them, so no one had been in danger. Sapnap curled his hands into fists and tugged sharply at his hair to take his attention away from whoever was trying to talk to him. And then he felt someone grab his head and force him to let go of his hair and look up. Quackity was sitting awkwardly in between the front seats, and someone had turned on the hazard lights. 

One of Quackity’s hands was cradling Sapnap’s cheek, and the other was caressing his enclosed fists, trying to calm him down. “Hey,” Quackity said softly to him, “hey, calm the fuck down, it’s okay.” Then he tugged him into a hug, and Sapnap shakily hugged back, accidentally pulling Quackity onto his lap as he did so, but neither one of them cared. Then Sapnap started laughing. “God, I thought I was gonna kill us.” He said, his voice shaky and uncertain. “Yeah,” Quackity agreed as he and Karl laughed along with Sapnap, “that’s gonna be a core memory, ‘first hour of being with your bo-  _ best friends _ and Nick almost kills you.’” That was one thing that Sapnap appreciated the most about Quackity: His ability to make light of any situation and make everyone laugh despite what was going on. It was a beautiful gift to have.

After Sapnap had calmed down enough to stand without trembling like an animal first learning how to walk, he switched places with Quackity in the backseat, and Karl took over as the driver since he had an idea of where to go to get back to Sapnap’s house. At some point in time, Sapnap had fallen asleep in the car, and when he woke again he was laying in his bed. A blanket had been thrown over his body, and there was a note next to his head. He sat up, feeling somewhat weak. He needed a glass of water and a cold shower, but first, the note. 

_“_ _ What happened in the car wasn’t your fault. Get some sleep, you deserve it, when you wake up, we’re in the living room. Won’t talk about it if you don’t want too, love you. _

_ \- K & A” _

Maybe he was just touch deprived, but it was such a considerate thing for them to do. Sapnap fondly smoothed out a crease in the paper and set it on the table next to his bed. It would be embarrassing if they found out that he was keeping the note, but at the moment he didn’t care. He just wanted to know how much time had passed since he’d last looked at a clock.

Sapnap walked out of his bedroom and immediately heard muffled voices coming from the living room. He hesitantly approached, hiding partially behind a wall to peer into the room, seeing Quackity sitting in a relaxed position on his couch. One leg was taking up the entire seat portion, and his other foot was on the floor. He was slumped against the armrest, cradling Lily in one arm while with the other one he propped his head up to look at Karl, who was sitting comfortably on the floor, giving Sapnap a glorious view of Quackity’s side profile. 

Unfortunately, that was when Karl noticed him standing there awkwardly in the shadows, thirsting over Quackity’s gorgeousness. “Nick!” He exclaimed, and Sapnap wished he could sink into the floor and die as Quackity shot him a suggestive smirk.  _ God, he knew. _ “Come on, don’t you dare feel shy in your own house!” Karl playfully chided him, holding out a hand, inviting Sapnap to join them, and he slowly did, stuffing his hands into his pockets as he approached them, still feeling bad about earlier but now embarrassed about the hundredth stupid thing that he’d done just today.

Quackity folded his leg up to his chest as Sapnap approached, at first appearing to make room for Sapnap to sit on the couch, but as soon as he sat down, Quackity stretched his leg back out so that his knee and lower thigh rested on Sapnap’s lap. There was no way that Quackity was oblivious to what he was doing... He was a joker, but sometimes he could be the hugest tease that Sapnap knew. 

Sapnap sucked in a breath, preparing to apologize, but, as if his mind had been read, Quackity gently kicked Sapnap’s arm to distract him. “I know what you’re going to say-“ He started, warning clear in his voice. Before he could continue however, Karl spoke as well. “Yeah, if anything, that was my fault. I shouldn’t have yelled at you.” He said, purposefully focusing his gaze on something going on outside of a window. Sapnap shook his head and shoved Quackity’s foot away from his face, his touch lingering on his calf for a second too long. “No, it wasn’t your fault. I was the distracted driver, not you, and not Alex. This one’s on me.”

Sapnap’s expression dropped and he didn’t bother to stop Quackity from laying his leg back across his lap, instead he pretended that a fraying spot on the knee of Quackity’s jeans was the most interesting thing in the world. “You keep using that word, ‘distracted.’” Karl noted, and Sapnap bit his lip, resisting the urge to reach over and fiddle with a small, loose thread on Quackity’s pants. He vaguely heard Quackity agree with Karl, and felt both of their eyes boring into his skull, waiting for an explanation. This isn’t how he wanted it to go... This was too soon...

“Karl, what did you mean when you said that that song reminded you of me?” Sapnap finally asked after another minute of thick silence. He didn’t know where he was going with this, maybe he was trying to change the subject, or maybe he was trying to figure something out, Sapnap didn’t know, but he wasn’t going to back out. There was a small intake of breath from Quackity, but Sapnap chose to ignore its possible meaning. Karl’s face grew red as his eyes flickered back to Sapnap for only a second, before moving to something on the floor. He had no screen to hide behind this time. Was this how he looked when Sapnap had asked him that over text? But Karl replied with the same thing: “It seemed like something you would like.” 

Sapnap was about to reply when Quackity beat him to it. “Hot Sugar? Glass Animals?” He questioned Sapnap, who nodded so softly that he had to mumble a soft, “Yes.” so that Quackity could acknowledge his confirmation. “He sent me the same thing.” Quackity then said, seemingly unfazed by everything that was going on, unlike Karl and Sapnap, who looked like they’d just come inside from nearly subzero weather with no facial protection. 

Sapnap pressed his face into his hands, once again concealing his expression. This was moving way too quickly... “I- fuck, I..” He started, voice muffled from his palms. He knew that the attention was fully on him once again. There was no backing out, not now, not ever again. If he was misreading the situation, he might as well drop contact with everyone he’d ever known and move five states over. If he was misreading the situation....

_ If..... _

“I.. love you. Both of you.”


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sapnap, Karl and Quackity have a conversation following Sapnap’s confession.

  
“I.. love you. Both of you.”

God, he regretted it the moment the words left his mouth. He could practically feel the judgmental stares of his friends. He’d caught them off guard, way too off guard, with absolutely no warning. They were probably going to take the next flight home. Everything was ruined. Sapnap had ruined everything. Because he didn’t know how to keep his feelings to himself. The newfound silence in the room felt like a million pounds of bricks being dumped onto Sapnap’s back as he hunched over, trying in vain to fold in on himself until he disappeared. He’d ruined everything. There was no recovering from this. It was time to cut contact and pretend like his heart hadn’t just been crushed a billion times over-

“I know.”

What.

Quackity gently removed his leg from where Sapnap had trapped it beneath him before hugging him yet again, forcing Sapnap to twist towards Quackity and ultimately fall backwards onto the couch with Quackity pinning him down, his face hidden in Sapnap’s chest, arms tightly wrapped around his waist, abdomen between his thighs. “I know. I’ve known. You’re  _ not _ subtle.” Sapnap was shaking again. The furnace had gone beyond kicking into overdrive, it had exploded. Sapnap was a raging inferno that could not be stopped. No amount of water could extinguish the blaze that was tearing through his blood.

Quackity propping his head up on Sapnap’s chest to look him in the eye brought him back down from the clouds, the pain of his chin digging into Sapnap’s ribs grounded him, and he firmly grabbed Quackity with his uncertain hands. And then Karl was there too, squeezing himself onto the couch next to the others to wrap both of them in an awkward half-hug. One arm pressed the three of them together while the other lay pinned beneath Karl’s body. One of Karl’s legs being stretched over Quackity’s hips squeezed the breath out of him and Sapnap as they were crushed together. “I kind of knew too,” Karl admitted, “you really are the exact opposite of subtle, and Alex has talked with me, plenty of times.”

Bliss. Pure bliss. Sapnap felt like crying, but he couldn’t rejoice yet because he didn’t know how  _ they _ felt about this. Quackity was the first to speak after a moment of comfortable silence. “I’m not going to say that I love you yet,” he started, sounding nervous and surprisingly shy, “but I’m getting there, and I want to give both of you a chance. Want to give  _ us _ a chance.” His hopeful brown eyes locked onto Sapnap’s before flickering over to Karl, who had nestled his head awkwardly into the crook of Sapnap’s neck. 

When Karl sighed, a pleasured shudder ran down Sapnap’s spine as Karl’s breath tickled his skin, and his eyes drifted shut for a single second. _This._ This is what he wanted. What he desired. He’d craved this for days, weeks,  _ months _ _._ Something this intimate had only been a thing conjured up by his lonely brain when he lay in his bed late at night with only his blankets and pillows as company. “I don’t know how I feel.” Karl then said, and Sapnap did his best to look over at him, but the strain pained his eyes, so he just focused on Quackity. “I want to say that I  _like_ you-“ by ‘you’, Sapnap assumed he meant both of them “but I don’t know. I want to give this a chance though.”

Quackity finally repositioned his head so that his chin wasn’t bringing Sapnap pain. Now, his cheek was pressed into Sapnap’s chest, right where his heart was. Hesitantly, Sapnap removed one hand from around Quackity to tap his arm, asking without saying anything for Quackity to give him a hand. He did, and Sapnap gently grabbed his wrist, still doing or saying nothing besides nervously biting his lip. Quackity’s hands were hot and sweaty, but when Sapnap slid his finger’s between Quackity’s, it felt like they fit together like pieces of a puzzle. Sapnap’s hand in Quackity’s slightly smaller one. This was  _ so right. _

Karl then raised his hand from around Quackity and Sapnap to rest on top of the others’. His one fist easily covered theirs, and Sapnap felt his face heat up until he knew that he was an embarrassing shade of pink. If Quackity could hear his increased heartbeat, he said nothing about it. The three of them laying here like this felt so correct. Like everything that had ever happened in the history of the universe had led directly up to this moment, and it had. Sapnap didn’t care if that was a selfish thing to think. If being selfish meant that he would be able to stay like this with the loves of his life, then he would proudly be the most selfish person in the world until the day that he died. 

Eventually the combined body heat between the three of them became too much, and as Karl was attempting to smoothly roll off of the couch, Quackity unexpectedly began to move with him, and in a panic as the two of them started falling, Quackity latched onto Sapnap, and then all of them hit the floor with a thud, Karl taking the brunt of their weight as Sapnap fell directly on top of him. Luckily though, Quackity had landed on his limbs, so he was able to get out of the way immediately. Karl’s arms wrapped around Sapnap as he tried to rise, which only caused him to slip and fall back onto Karl with a small shriek. 

Quackity eventually helped them up off of the floor after he was done laughing at them, and Sapnap playfully punched his arm, but when Quackity retaliated by sloppily moving his bangs aside and planting a kiss onto his forehead, any and all coherent thoughts instantly jumped on the next flight to Hawaii that was leaving in 0.05 seconds. Sapnap froze in place, trying to grasp what had just happened. He was aware of Quackity and Karl giggling over the stupid expression that he probably wore, but his remaining half of a brain cell was focused only on the lingering feeling of Quackity’s lips on his skin. 

Sapnap waited until Quackity’s focus was away from himself before pouncing, pinning Quackity’s arms to his side as he brought them both to the floor yet again, this time accompanied by a surprised scream from Quackity as Karl hastily backed out of their way. Quackity managed to wiggle partially out of Sapnap’s grasp, enough to free one arm, and reached towards Karl, who held up his hands in defense. “Karl!” Quackity shrieked through laughter while he and Sapnap continued to more or less wrestle on the floor. “I’m not getting involved in this!” Karl said back, and Sapnap let out a triumphant laugh. “Accept defeat Alex!” He demanded, but Quackity wouldn’t lose that easily.

“Karl, throw me a pillow!” Quackity shouted next, and this time, Karl obliged. The next thing Sapnap knew was that he was being hit with a pillow, and he closed his eyes, trying to bury his face against Quackity to protect himself. His grip unknowingly loosened just a little bit, but it was enough for Quackity to free himself from Sapnap’s clutches. His beanie had come off in the ordeal, and his hair was sticking up in some places, as was Sapnap’s. Quackity scrabbled away from Sapnap, pillow held up, ready to attack, as Sapnap rose to stand in a defensive position. 

Nobody said or did anything over the next couple seconds until Sapnap burst into laughter, the other two quickly joining him. Quackity and Sapnap’s battle now forgotten, they collapsed onto the floor, giggling like little kids. Barriers had been torn down with Sapnap’s confession, and being this close, this touchy with each other felt very normal all of a sudden. Sapnap had never been in a relationship outside of amateur middle school dealings that had lasted less than a week, but he knew that things could never get better than this: The moment after the walls first come down and everyone’s still too excited to think of the future, only the present, only wanting to mess around and be close with each other before the world’s problems come crashing back into mind. 

It was too hot to keep rolling about on the floor, so the three of them just took a moment to breathe. Finally, Sapnap broke the silence to ask, “What time is it?” Karl pulled back his sleeve to look at the watch on his wrist. “It’s almost 6.” Sapnap had to do a double take. “What? Already?” Karl hissed through his teeth, sounding somewhat embarrassed, “Yeah, sorry about that, we kinda got lost on the way back here.” Quackity nodded along with Karl’s words. “Yeah, but we got to see some sights, you know?” He joked, and Karl smiled softly and agreed. 

“You should have woke me up.” Sapnap said. Karl and Quackity hastily disagreed with him. “No! And even if we wanted to wake you up, I doubt you would’ve stayed conscious for more than five seconds.” Quackity said, Karl nodding along. “You looked dead. You didn’t even flinch when Cash started barking at Alex.” Karl added. Sapnap sighed. “I’m glad it was you guys, I don’t think anyone else would want to talk to me after having to deal with getting lost in an unfamiliar state and then have to drag my lifeless corpse all the way into my room, which by the way, you didn’t have to do.” 

Quackity waved a dismissive hand. “Nah, stop beating yourself up.” Sapnap raised an eyebrow, confused. “I wasn’t- I’m not beating myself up-? You could’ve just dumped me on the couch!” 

“We’re not ‘dumping’ you anywhere.” Karl retaliated sternly, and Sapnap opened his mouth to reply, but Quackity slapped a hand over his lips instead. “No, but we will dump you somewhere less pleasant than the couch if you don’t stop pissing on yourself.” Sapnap pushed Quackity’s hand away and shot him another, even more confused look. “I’m  _ not _ pissing on myself! I’m just saying that you didn’t have to drag me out of the car and all the way into my room!” He replied exasperatedly. 

Karl then scooted closer to Sapnap and pulled him into an embrace, resting his chin on top of Sapnap’s head as he lay, now sprawled out in Karl’s lap, loosely trapped in his arms. Quackity smirked, and Karl matched Sapnap’s tone as he responded, “And  _ I’m _ just saying that we  wanted to carry you to your room.” And then Quackity sat himself on Sapnap’s exposed torso, effectively pinning him onto the ground. Sapnap grunted as the air was pushed out of his lungs, and just decided to cave in.

It was an awkward position for all of them, and soon Sapnap was forced to push Quackity off of his body so that he could escape and breathe again. And then he remembered. His plan. Hastily, he shot up onto his feet. “Uh- plan, I had a plan, did you guys bring nice clothes?” He sputtered. Both Karl and Quackity gave him an odd look, but they both nodded. “Good, I, uh, wanted to take you guys out for dinner. My treat?” Karl stood and grinned sweetly. “Thank you, we could split the bill though, so you don’t have to pay for everything.” 

Sapnap shook his head. “No, I’m paying, I want too.” He stated as Quackity too got off the floor. “Oh, Jesus,” he started under his breath, “I’m down but we’re  _ not _ doing this shit again!” Sapnap smiled and blushed. “So,” Karl started softly, attracting the attention of Sapnap and Quackity, “is this like, a date?” Sapnap blushed and looked away. _A date._   


Screw the original platonic intentions behind this outing. “It’s a date.” He confirmed. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a little bit shorter but I wanted to get it done sooner rather than later. I’ll also hopefully be able to update a little more often (at least for now) because I’m on a break from school.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sapnap reveals that he, Karl and Quackity have met up to some of the SMP along with a stream.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WE’RE POPPING OFF, TWO UPDATES IN ONE DAY-

  
It was almost dark outside when Sapnap, Karl and Quackity made their way back into Sapnap’s house. They’d gone to a nearby restaurant and had only left when they did because Karl was sure that Sapnap and Quackity’s loud banter was going to get them kicked out. Quackity had been in a sour mood on the drive back to the house, but he perked up as soon as they walked in the doors. Sapnap just  knew that if they were old enough, Quackity probably would have come home drunk.

After getting settled in and putting leftovers in the fridge, Sapnap posed the idea that they go surprise everyone on the Dream SMP, considering this later time was usually a prime time for people to be on. Quackity got the honor of sitting in Sapnap’s chair while the other two pulled up other chairs, which gave Quackity a new level of power. When they logged onto the Dream SMP, Eret, Ranboo, Wilbur, Tommy, George and Dream were all in the server. 

A chorus of ‘hi’s erupted in the chat, and as Quackity opened the chat to reply, he began chuckling manically. The next series of events happened very suddenly and they were over very suddenly: Quackity began hastily typing out a violently inappropriate sentence. Karl let out a small gasp of ‘oh no’ and stood, trying in vain to delete the words as Sapnap just started pounding on the keys, hoping to make it look like a keyboard smash. Karl accidentally pressed enter. “penaqisjw, 1n)you!jiw.!!’dl.” A masterpiece. 

Everyone in the chat was now obviously confused, and within the next five seconds Sapnap received multiple invites to a voice call. Quackity was banned from the main chair, but he went nearly sobbing with laughter. Sapnap dawned the headphones and joined the call. Eret’s concern was swiftly drowned out by Quackity’s continuous shrieking, but eventually he fell into silent gasps for breath and Sapnap was able to hear his friends as Karl tried to calm Quackity down before he killed himself. 

“Sapnap??” Wilbur questioned worriedly just as Quackity was revived into another round of squealing. Sapnap whirled around in his seat to see Quackity now on the floor with Karl crouching over him, a desperate look that begged ‘help me’ in his eyes. Sapnap removed his headphones, leaving the others to their confusion, and crouched over Quackity. Not knowing what else to do, Sapnap panicked and grabbed Quackity’s face at the same time as Quackity started to sit up, practically smashing their faces together. 

He didn’t mean to kiss him. He really didn’t, but he also hadn’t thought that Quackity would sit up, and now Sapnap’s lips were planted on the edge of Quackity’s mouth.

He’d meant to try and talk to him, to force him to relax, but fate apparently had other plans. Well, at least it brought Quackity back to earth and he wasn’t laughing anymore. When Sapnap quickly pulled away, Karl was sitting at his desk, talking to everyone and awkwardly explaining the situation. He hadn’t appeared to have seen what had happened... Sapnap began to stand, but Quackity grabbed his hand and jerked him back onto the ground. He then gripped Sapnap’s chin and gently pecked him fully on the lips. 

Still giggling slightly from his earlier antics, Quackity stood and allowed Sapnap to stand as well before he leaned over and whispered to him, “That’s how you actually kiss someone.” Sapnap knew he was completely flushed, he could feel how hot his face and ears were, but despite that he walked over and accepted the headphones from Karl. When he sighed to ground himself, everyone in the call seemed to notice him at once. “Sapnap?” George questioned. “I- yeah- er, I- fuck.. Hello.” He stammered, wishing he could sink into the ground. 

Quackity let out a little chuckle at the same time as Tommy asked, “You alright, big S?” Sapnap shot Quackity a halfhearted glare as he replied, “I’m fine, yeah.” God, he did not sound fine. He sounded like he had a loaded gun pressed to his head and the only way to stay alive was to pretend like everything was normal and like he hadn’t just had his first kiss because of a mistake on both his and Quackity’s behalves. “You sound flustered.” Dream. Sapnap glared daggers at the screen as Dream’s stupid little green character ran up to him, crouching repeatedly in front of him, taunting him. 

“I am  _ not _ flustered.” Sapnap stated, vaguely aware that Karl was looking to Quackity, asking under his breath what had happened. The two of them then shared a little chuckle before focusing back on the screen. “Yeah?” Dream teased, and Sapnap rolled his eyes. “Yeah? Dream?” Sapnap taunted back, a lethal edge of sarcasm in his voice. He could say something that could easily make Dream more flustered than him, but he held back because there were so many other people in the call, minors included. “You just jealous because you can’t meet up with someone?” Sapnap asked, his voice deep and confident. He felt himself leaning closer to his mic, a smirk on his face. “Jealous Dreamy?” 

“You’re meeting up with someone?” A new voice cut in, saving Dream from having to reply, and the faux tension melted away. Tubbo. He must have joined the call when Karl and Sapnap were switching off with the headphones. “Yes I am,” Sapnap proudly stated, “I’m with The Boys, say hi The Boys!” Both Karl and Quackity let out a terrifyingly synchronized, “Wooooo!” and then all three of them started laughing. “We’re popping off!” Karl exclaimed, and stood from his chair to pull off the wave-like dance move that he often did. Quackity started clapping vigorously, and once again, everything felt perfect. Nothing could ruin this moment. 

“Nick, where did you put the Monsters that we got earlier?” Sapnap turned around in his seat to look at Karl, who was standing in the entrance to his room. “They’re in the fridge, in the door I think, if not then the top shelf.” 

“Thanks!”

“No problem!”

As Karl left, Quackity leaned over Sapnap’s shoulder, resting his chin comfortably on his shoulder to watch him set up the stream.He was almost ready, he just needed to title it and then he could switch it to his ‘stream starting soon’ screen. After a moment of consideration, Sapnap finally went live. Quackity’s phone, which had been laying face up on the table, lit up with a Twitch notification.  _“Sapnap is live: BIG EVENT!! DONT MISS OUT!!!”_ Sapnap chuckled and tilted his head back to look up at Quackity. “That’s cute, you’re following me.” He said, and Quackity rolled his eyes as he tapped Sapnap’s nose. “Duh, it would be stupid if I wasn’t.” 

When Karl returned, he distributed the Monsters and sat down on Sapnap’s left. “Okay,” Sapnap started, “stream’s ready to go, how long should we spend on my channel?” Karl thought for a moment, but Quackity replied before he got the chance. “Well, we should talk with everyone, and then it’ll probably take a while for someone else to get set up on the other PC. So maybe an hour at least? We don’t wanna spend too much time since it’s already like, 10 pm.” Sapnap nodded and ruffled Quackity’s exposed hair. He hadn’t had the beanie on since earlier. “That sounds good, you gonna do your hair reveal too?” Sapnap teased, and Quackity pulled away from him, shaking his head.

“Nope! Not today,” he replied as he started to head to the door, “boyfriend reveal will be enough.” And then he was out of sight. Sapnap turned to Karl, whose face was dusted pink. “Boyfriend reveal, huh?” He joked, and Karl grinned. “Yeah, I want to wait though, before we announce it as official, you know?” Sapnap nodded. He knew that Karl was the most uncertain out of all of them, and he would respect that. “But...” Karl then said, and Sapnap felt his heart do a backflip. The last ‘but’ he’d gotten from Karl had caused one of the best things in his life. “I think I now know how to feel.” 

There was a soft smile on his lips, and his features were outlined by the white light of Sapnap’s computer screen. Sapnap smiled, aware of Quackity returning, this time with his beanie on, as Karl added, “Yeah, dinner was awesome, I got to know you guys better than I ever thought possible, and someday I want to be able to say ‘I love you.’” A simple heartfelt statement, but Sapnap felt like crying again. Immediately, both him and Quackity had the same idea, and they all found themselves in a tight embrace. 

After a pleasant minute or two, Karl pulled away and pointed out that the almost 75 thousand people in the stream had been waiting for nearly seven minutes for the stream to begin, and they were avidly protesting this wait in the chat. Oh well, nice music and funky lights could only cover up for a short amount of time. Sapnap seated himself in his chair, Karl on his left, Quackity on his right. He made sure that they would be in the frame, and turned on the face cam. 

Saying that the chat was going insane would be a violent understatement. There was approximately one second of dead silence from the chat before thousands and thousands of fully capitalized sentences came rolling in, from “OMG THEY MET UP” to just keyboard smashes, along with a ton of the pog emotes. Sapnap laughed as he tried in vain to read through the chat although slow mode was on, but the only thing he could easily get out of the chaos was “IS THIS REAL???” which the majority of the people were sending. 

“It’s real guys!” Sapnap exclaimed as he grinned like a maniac. “We met up!” Karl put in, and Sapnap reached up to ruffle Quackity’s hair, a habit he’d unfortunately picked up within the last hours of them being home, before remembering that doing so would most likely cost Quackity his hair reveal, and he dejectedly let his hand drop. Quackity noticed this and elbowed him playfully. “I swear to god if that’s a habit of yours now...” He threatened, but Sapnap knew he didn’t mean it and just looked away sheepishly. Chat, of course, noticed, and of course, people were going to clip that.

After the initial shock of seeing Quackity, Karl and Sapnap together, many questions were asked, and eventually the three were able to dig out common questions or statements that were sent multiple times in a row by many different people. Donations, of course, also popped up every other second with questions. “We should have warned them beforehand,” Quackity laughed, “this is a fucking nightmare.” 

Sapnap scoffed teasingly, “You already gave somewhat of a warning, it was bound to be like this anyways.” Quackity turned towards him, and Sapnap’s confidence flickered as they made eye contact. “Like a stupid tweet counts as a warning?” He replied, and Sapnap let out a curt but loud laugh. “It was a picture of the fucking  _airport!_ In  _ Texas!” _ Quackity threw his hands up in mock defense. “Okay fine! It was a picture of the fucking airport in Texas!” Quackity then turned to the screen. “Chat did I give you a warning beforehand?” Karl shook his head as Sapnap mouthed ‘no’ at the screen, and Quackity shot them a halfhearted glare as thousands of ‘no’s started appearing in chat.

After almost an hour of Sapnap, Karl and Quackity goofing off and doing their best to answer questions and interact with the audience, Sapnap decided that it was time for one of them to start setting up on the other PC. After an intense game of rock, paper, scissors, Quackity triumphantly left the room to go get his own stream set up, leaving Karl and Sapnap alone with Sapnap’s stream of now almost 90k viewers. 

With Quackity in another room, the guest bedroom, things mellowed out pretty quickly. Sapnap sighed and felt deflated now that the constant stream of humor from Quackity was gone. His cheeks hurt from smiling, and he knew that Karl felt the same way. He closed his eyes for a brief moment, suddenly exhausted, and when he opened them it was because Karl had scooted his chair closer to wrap an arm around him. Sapnap leaned into Karl’s touch, loving the way that his head fit perfectly under Karl’s chin. “People are gonna clip this.” He stated, as if it wasn’t obvious. Karl shrugged. “I know.”

After a couple seconds, Sapnap removed his headset since there wasn’t anything to say or listen to anyways. He set it on the table and relaxed against Karl, who was now rubbing his back soothingly. After another minute or two of comfortable silence, as he was watching the monitor, Karl noticed that Sapnap had actually fallen asleep. He pressed a hand over his mouth to stifle the small giggle of adoration that threatened to leave his throat. This was  _ definitely _ getting clipped. 

Thousands of ‘aww’s were being typed into the chat, and Karl couldn’t stop the wide smile that grew on his face. Carefully as to not wake up Sapnap, Karl grabbed the headset and put it on. “It’s the Sapnap sleep stream,” he whispered to everyone, “today, Sapnap speed runs sleeping on stream.” His voice was thick with fondness, and anyone who wasn’t watching the stream but was listening to it would be able to hear the smile in his voice, but of course the moment didn’t last for very long. 

Quackity burst through the door, and poor Sapnap jolted awake. He jumped and almost smacked Karl’s chin with his head as he looked around the room, heart pounding with sudden fear. Quackity slapped a hand over his mouth. “Holy shit was he asleep?” He asked Karl, who nodded. Quackity burst into apologetic laughter and jogged over to Sapnap to apologize as Karl hugged him once again, massaging his shoulder to calm him down. 

Sapnap slumped back into his seat, embarrassed. “You should have woken me up..” He grumbled, and Quackity sighed. “Not again. I said this already, we’re not doing the ‘boohoo you should have woken me up’ bullshit again.” Sapnap shot him a look of false annoyance through somewhat narrowed eyes, but whatever he was going to say in response was forgotten as Karl sneakily pressed a kiss onto the top of his head. How chat didn’t notice was a mystery, but a very welcome mystery. “Anyways,” Quackity continued, the chiding tone in his voice being replaced by excitement, “I’ll be ready in maybe five minutes. I’ll text one of you when the stream’s ready to go.” Karl gave Quackity a thumbs up before he turned and left again. 

Sapnap reluctantly pulled himself out of Karl’s arms and opened Twitter on his computer, keeping it hidden from the stream. Karl stifled a small laugh as the trending hashtags popped up, and Sapnap groaned. “Oh my god, you seriously got #sleepnap trending on Twitter?!” He exclaimed, turning towards Karl accusingly as his face turned red. Karl looked away, once again fiddling with the hem of his sweater. “I didn’t mean too.” He chuckled. “This day just gets worse.” Sapnap moaned as he slid out of his chair to accept defeat on the floor. 

Karl removed the headset and lay next to Sapnap, placing a hand on his chin and turning his head so that they faced each other. “I’m sorry.” Karl offered, and Sapnap sighed. “Don’t apologize, you have nothing to apologize for.”

“Would a kiss make up for it?”

Sapnap was about to say that Karl had absolutely nothing to make up for and that he didn’t need to offer anything until the reality of what he was actually saying settled in, and Sapnap stopped himself moments before he would have said anything. Shyly, he turned his head away so he wouldn’t have to look directly at Karl. “I guess, if that’s okay with you.” He mumbled, feeling his face heat up for the billionth time today. God, he was such a simp. Karl shifted positions so that he was no longer on his back, like Sapnap was, but rather now laying somewhat uncomfortably on his stomach. 

Karl shyly scooted closer to Sapnap, who automatically closed his eyes, hoping that Karl couldn’t hear his pounding heartbeat as he closed the distance between them. And then he felt Karl’s lips on his forehead, not his mouth like he’d been anticipating. Sapnap opened his eyes as Karl pulled away, grinning mischievously. Sapnap didn’t know how to feel as he gaped at Karl. He mostly felt betrayed, that was for sure, but he also felt embarrassed and stupid. Sapnap sighed almsot dejectedly, and louder he declared, “I knew it, you exist only to torment me!” Karl let out a small huff of amusement. 

Both of them were beet red, and no amount of words could explain to the stream what had happened, but luckily that’s when Quackity returned. “I- okay what the fuck happened here?” He questioned, leaning against the doorframe as he awaited an explanation, but he wouldn’t be getting one anytime soon. Something told Sapnap that he already knew either way. 

“Well, the stream is set up, I texted you both nobody replied so... yeah, let’s get this shit going before someone finds your address and strangles you.” Quackity rubbed his hands together before once again leaving the room, and Sapnap finally rose from the floor. “Alright guys, you heard the man.” Sapnap said as he began meddling with the stream settings, Karl watching over his shoulder. “Sorry this wasn’t the most eventful stream.” Sapnap then said as he attempted to raid Quackity. Immediately chat was filled with promises that nothing about today was uneventful, and Sapnap smiled at the amount of reassurance that they were getting.

In the end, Sapnap had to put the link to Quackity’s stream in the chat since apparently there were too many viewers for him to raid properly, but either way, everyone would be able to get to Quackity’s channel just fine. And so, Sapnap’s stream was concluded, and he and Karl made their way to the other room, practically buzzing with anticipation for the new upcoming stream on Quackity’s channel.  
  


Sapnap couldn’t wait. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if it ended a little awkwardly, I didn’t wanna make this too long, and it’s also like 12 am so my brain has turned into soup.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sapnap and Karl have a conversation after streaming with Quackity.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m really popping off with the quick updates holy-

As soon as he sat down, waiting for Quackity to switch to their face cam, Sapnap opened his Monster and took a large sip. He was in somewhat of a mood, and he was prepared to reply to anything with sarcasm. “Damn, already?” Quackity teased. Sapnap paused to swallow before replying. “Well Alex, I’m making sure that I won’t fall asleep again, because that turned out wonderfully.” Quackity raised his hands in defense as Karl let out a small “oooh.”

Sapnap then smiled apologetically and motioned for Quackity to come sit down. “Sorry if that sounded rude, I kinda had to get back at you.” Quackity looked away as he thought. “Get back at me for what?” He finally asked through a small chuckle. Sapnap turned to fully face him. “Kissing me out of nowhere maybe? Stealing my kiss virginity and not talking about it afterwards?” Dramatic mode engaged. Quackity smirked and cupped Sapnap’s face in his hands. “And I’d do it again!” He exclaimed before swiftly leaning in and once again pecking Sapnap on the mouth. 

When he pulled away, Sapnap was red in the face and he’d lost his train of thoughts. “Seriously though, what’s there to talk about? Unless you’re mad at me, then-“ Sapnap hurriedly cut him off. “No I’m not mad! I’d never get mad at you for kissing me, that would be  _ really _ stupid. And petty.” Quackity looked over at him as he sat down between Sapnap and Karl. “Yeah?” Sapnap fought the urge to roll his eyes. “Yeah,” he replied, “getting mad or even upset over a single peck would be incredibly idiotic, not to mention toxic.” 

Quackity then turned the face cam on, grinning to himself, and Sapnap realized that he’d probably just been messing with him. “God..” He muttered as he stood and went to leave the room. “Where are you going?!” Quackity asked, and Sapnap looked over to Karl, for what, he didn’t know. “I’m running a lap around my house, Alex!” He exclaimed desperately. Karl started laughing, and Sapnap somewhat hesitantly returned to take his seat after an amount of begging, taking another sip of Monster. 

There was already an insane amount of people in the stream, and so they decided to get right into what the were doing. As Quackity pulled up the game they were playing, Outlast, Karl too opened his can of Monster and proposed a toast. “For meeting up?” He offered, but Quackity and Sapnap knew the real reason. “Hell yeah.” Quackity agreed rather softly as they hit their cans together, and then they got into the game.

Karl was controlling the keys, Quackity was controlling the mouse, and Sapnap was free to butt in whenever and wherever he wanted. They’d also decided that if, together, they got scared at least 30 times, then Quackity would end the stream. It was a very wild experience.

Multiple times, Sapnap chose to be an agent of chaos and press buttons that caused them to die multiple times, and this had resulted in at least 9 out of the total 26 times that they’d gotten visibly scared. 

Quackity finally decided to end the stream around 3 in the morning after the energy drinks wore off and they were all on the verge of yawning. After promising to stream again soon, it was just Sapnap, Quackity and Karl in the guest bedroom. Sapnap was the first to stand and stretch, breaking the silence as his joints popped. “Well, I want to get sleeping arrangements out of the way,” he said, “there’s enough room in my bed for two people, so either two of us take my room and someone takes this room, or someone takes this room, someone takes my room, and I sleep on the couch. I’m fine with either option.”

Karl and Quackity stood as well after Quackity turned off the computer. “Who said you have to sleep on the couch?” Quackity questioned after a second. “Nobody, it was a suggestion.” Sapnap replied. “Exactly. You’re not sleeping on the couch.” Sapnap just nodded, deciding not to say anything against Quackity, especially since Karl was nodding along with him. The next five minutes were filled with possible options for what to do, and more than once Sapnap had to tell Quackity that three people in one bed would be a nightmare, and so, after yet another game of rock, paper, scissors, it was decided that Quackity would be the one remaining in the guest room.

The house felt far less empty with more than one person inside, and Sapnap knew that he would loathe the days after Karl and Quackity’s departure, but that was something he could deal with when the time came. Right now, he had to focus on the present, which included spending a humorous amount of time showing Karl how his shower worked. 

After plugging his phone in and changing into more comfortable clothes, just shorts and a loose T-shirt, Sapnap crawled under his blankets, leaving the light on for Karl whenever he was done taking a shower. 

Sapnap didn’t know how much time had passed before he was woken up by his light turning off and the feeling of someone sitting next to him on the bed, but he didn’t think it had been too long. Neither he nor Karl said anything for the next few minutes as Sapnap tried to fall back asleep, and he assumed that Karl was asleep too until he spoke, voice softer than a whisper. “Is this too awkward?” Sapnap opened his eyes and twisted his head to look at the silhouette of Karl sitting on the edge of his bed. He hadn’t appeared to have moved since first sitting down.

“No, don’t worry about it,” Sapnap replied, “just lay down.” There was a pause, and then Sapnap sighed. “If you want, I can move to the couch. It’s no biggie.” Karl hastily turned around so that he was sitting cross legged on the bed and looking at Sapnap although Sapnap couldn’t see his face in the dark room. “No, it’s alright.” He said. He sounded a little reserved, like he didn’t fully feel welcome but didn’t know how to tell anyone. 

Sapnap sat up. “Is something wrong?” Karl shrugged and turned away from Sapnap so that his back was to him once more. “I feel like things are moving  really quickly,” he eventually explained, gesturing with his hands to release some of his energy, “I’m still unsure about a lot of this-“ he moved his hands in a small wave-like motion, like he was urging someone to speak “-and I don’t know what to do. I don’t want to seem like the feeling isn’t mutual, but-“ Sapnap wrapped his arms around Karl’s shoulders. He was damp, and smelled fresh and cinnamony like Sapnap’s hair products. 

“It’s not like that.” Sapnap whispered to him, and Karl relaxed, easing into his embrace. “Promise?” Sapnap nodded into Karl’s shoulder, hating that he felt this unsure. A drop of water fell from Karl’s still wet hair onto Sapnap’s cheek. “Yeah, I promise. I think Alex is just a really touchy person, and between you and I, it’s a little overwhelming sometimes.” Karl chuckled at that. “Yeah.” He agreed. 

No more words were exchanged between them, but Sapnap knew that Karl was decently reassured as he released him and lay back down with his back to the wall. The last thing he remembered before slipping into unconsciousness was the feeling of Karl laying down next to him and slowly, loosely slipping one of his hands into Sapnap’s, and in that brief moment, Sapnap knew that accidentally driving over the speed limit was the best thing he’d ever done, because if he didn’t, none of this might have happened. 


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Karl and Quackity share a moment together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy New Years, y’all are getting a real treat in this chapter ;)
> 
> (yeah it’s a bit explicit)

  
Karl woke up sometime before the sun was up, either because of a dream that he didn’t remember or because Sapnap was snoring. As he adjusted to being awake, he saw that Sapnap had turned onto his back at some point in time, and Karl’s hand lay cold and empty between the two of them. He lay there for a moment, studying Sapnap’s side profile with the very dim light coming in through a window. His lips were parted a bit, and Karl could vaguely see a tiny amount of stubble on his jaw. Sapnap then shifted in his sleep, and a lock of dark hair slipped across his forehead.

Sapnap’s eyelids fluttered for a moment, then he closed his mouth and let out a groan as he turned onto his side, away from Karl. The snoring continued a second later. Karl was about to fall back asleep before a distant clatter and curt curse caught his attention. He got up, careful as to not disturb Sapnap, tucking the blanket around him somewhat so that it would still feel like someone was there. Karl then snuck over to the bedside table and raised Sapnap’s phone to look at the time. It was almost 5:00 in the morning. God, they’d been asleep for less than two hours.

Karl tiptoed out of Sapnap’s room, cringing as the door squeaked as it opened, but the biggest reaction that Sapnap had to anything was shifting positions to pull the blankets up around his neck. He was out cold. Karl closed the door behind him and crept through the hallway, nearly tripping over a cat in the darkness, until he arrived in the kitchen. Quackity was leaning against the counter, looking at his phone and illuminated by the lights that were on above the sink. He looked exhausted, and he hadn’t noticed Karl yet. “Quack?” Karl whispered, and Quackity jumped, clutching his chest and nearly dropping his phone. “God, Karl.” He hissed as he turned his phone off and put it face down on the counter behind him.

He wore a light gray tank top and black shorts that Karl soon debunked to be boxer briefs. His feet were bare, and he looked a little embarrassed as he crossed his arms over his chest. “I didn’t think anyone else would be awake, sorry.” He mumbled. Karl approached him and stood across from him, examining him in the minimal light. The white light shined on him from behind, casting his face in shadow while outlining the smooth skin of his shoulders, his hair, and the parts of his sides that were above the counter’s surface. A colored light source from an unknown location was reflecting in his eyes so that there was a little red dot on the edge of his eyes, which were pointed downwards. 

“Don’t apologize.” Karl replied under his breath. It felt almost surreal to be standing here in the early hours of the morning. The entire house felt like it was holding its breath. “Um,” Karl then uttered, “what are you doing out here?” Quackity lowered his arms to his side. His top closely hugged his chest, but loosened out a little bit around his waist, and Karl could easily see the outline of his collarbones through the fabric. If he tried hard enough, he could also see where Quackity’s ribcage ended when he sucked in a deep breath. 

“Like I said, I didn’t think anyone else would be awake. I can’t sleep, so I came out here,” he sighed, “beats laying in bed staring at the ceiling...” There was more that he wasn’t saying, but Karl didn’t really care. “Is it something I can help with?” Karl asked, and Quackity finally looked up at him. Karl then noticed that there was also a small, white reflection of the sink lights behind Quackity in his gaze, and Karl realized that that was his own eyes reflecting back at him. 

“Uh, no,” Quackity replied softly, “actually, I’ve been, fuck, this sounds so bad but I’ve been thinking about you.” Karl tipped his head to the side, not knowing whether to feel curious or awkward yet. “Oh?” He questioned. “What do you...?” Quackity must have noticed how Karl’s voice was a little bit strained, because he raised his hands, shaking them as his face turned red. “Not like that though!” He hurriedly exclaimed. Karl smirked. “It’s totally fine,” he assured Quackity with a dismissive wave of his hand, “I’m not gonna like, get so uncomfortable that I walk out on you if you mention sex.” 

Quackity shot Karl a look. “I never brought up sex!” He exclaimed in his usual tone, but he lowered his voice after Karl quickly motioned for him to be quiet. Right. Sapnap was still asleep. “You’re the one who brought up sex!” Quackity’s previous embarrassment seemed to have faded, but he was still blushing. Karl shook his head and started chuckling. “No, you said ‘this sounds bad’ implying that  _ you _ were thinking that  _ I _ was thinking-“ 

“Yeah, yeah, okay, whatever, I brought up sex first!” Quackity hissed, cutting Karl off through his own chuckles. As they were laughing, trying and nearly failing to keep their voices quiet, Karl noticed Quackity shiver slightly, and regained his composure. “Are you cold?” He asked, and Quackity once again crossed his arms over his chest. He shrugged. “Kind of. My house is so damn hot so I don’t really sleep in much. I assumed it would be the same here so I only packed this as sleepwear-“ he gestured to himself and his revealing clothes, “-but this psycho’s house gets way cooler than you’d expect.” 

Karl hadn’t noticed the cold like Quackity did. He was in a short sleeve shirt and shorts, but he was also way more used to temperatures cooler than normal for both Sapnap and Quackity. Karl invitingly held his arms open for Quackity, who gladly stepped forwards and practically fell into Karl’s embrace. “You’re kind of a touchy person, aren’t you?” Karl teased as he fondly rubbed Quackity’s bare arms, and Quackity huffed against his chest. Karl couldn’t see his eyes clearly, but he knew that Quackity was glaring playfully at him. “I guess,” he replied after a moment, “but that’s also kind of what I was thinking about earlier.” 

Karl said nothing, waiting for Quackity to continue. “I noticed that you seemed kind of, I don’t know how to put this, awkward? Whenever we were hugging or whenever Nick and I were doing anything.” He said, and Karl fell silent, chewing the inside of his cheek as he debated how to reply. Luckily, Quackity continued before Karl had to think of something. “I wanted to ask you if there are any boundaries you want set, like what you’re comfortable with and what you’re not? I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.” Karl’s heart warmed at Quackity’s thoughtfulness, and he smiled. “Thanks, I appreciate that. Yeah, there are a couple things I guess...

“I’m fine with hugging or cuddling, but not anything more than that  _ just _ yet, like kissing or other more, like,  _ intimate _ stuff.” Quackity nodded against Karl, who then noticed that Quackity was supporting most of his weight on his body. Their chests were pressed together, and Quackity had moved to rest his head on Karl’s shoulder, with his hands wrapped around his waist, fingers drawing shapes on Karl’s back. Their knees were close enough to touch, and if either one of them leaned into the other just a little more, their hips would be pressed together as well. “Kissing in general or just on the lips stuff?” Quackity asked after Karl was done speaking. Karl thought for a moment. “What do you mean?”

“Would kissing in general be too far or would I be able to kiss you on the cheek every so often?” 

“I think that you’d be able to kiss me on the cheek,” Karl replied, feeling his face heat up as he spoke, “I just want to let this whole thing marinate a little bit before I can easily kiss anyone on the lips.” His voice softened into less than a whisper, his words meant only for Quackity, who Karl knew was listening with every fiber of his body. “We- you and I have talked more than Nick and I have, so I’m still waiting to see where everything goes. To be honest I’m not fully sure about...” Karl trailed off, not knowing how to phrase his words. “I have absolutely no poly experience.” He finally got out. 

“Same here,” Quackity laughed, “I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing. Half of the shit I say or do is on impulse because I don’t know how to act.” It felt so good to get these confessions off of their chests. To Karl and Quackity, much like how Sapnap had felt earlier, everything that had ever happened between them had just been small steps to get to where they were now: In Sapnap’s kitchen at 5:58 in the morning, hugging and talking about important relationship things.

“So,” Quackity started, pulling his head away from Karl’s shoulder to make eye contact around the bangs that had fallen to mostly cover his eyes, “just to clarify, kisses on the cheek and stuff is fine, but nothing on the lips yet.” Karl blushed as he raised a hand from Quackity’s arm to brush the hair out of his eyes, never breaking eye contact. “That’s right, but I might be willing to make an exception...” Quackity sucked in a breath as Karl leaned forwards, leaving about an inch of space between them, giving Quackity the choice to either close the distance or pull away. 

It was like a scene straight from a cheesy romance movie. Birds had begun to chirp outside as the sky turned purple, orange and pink in the distance with the night coming to an end. Quackity’s eyes fluttered shut and he pressed forwards, pressing his lips to Karl’s. Illuminated by more than just the lights above the sink now, Karl could vaguely see the red painted across Quackity’s cheeks before he too closed his eyes, Quackity leaning into the kiss, deepening it as Karl’s hands moved downward, his palms resting on Quackity’s hips, the tips of his fingers teasingly sliding under his tank top. 

Their lips fit perfectly together like pieces of a puzzle. Breathing in the same air, not caring about morning breath. And then Quackity pressed even closer to Karl, pushing him backwards and cupping his cheeks as Karl hit the wall behind them; their hips pressing together while their legs practically became tangled. Karl’s grip tightened on Quackity’s hips, and then his hands were sliding slightly up onto his waist, accidentally pulling the bottom of his tank top up as well, exposing even more skin and the beginnings of Quackity’s v-line.

It seemed like the type of kiss that would deepen into full on making out, but never once did either man try to slide his tongue into the other’s mouth. Karl and Quackity’s bodies remained completely flush with each other; there didn’t seem to be any places where they weren’t touching. It was the most affectionate and passionate moment that both Karl and Quackity had ever been immersed in, and soon both of them desperately needed to break away to breathe, but every time they began to disconnect, they just found themselves drawn back for more.

And then Quackity unconsciously let out a breathy moan against Karl’s lips, only a split second before he hastily pulled away, practically shoving himself away from Karl. Quackity quickly backed up until his back hit the counter again, and he cringed in pain as the edge dug into his skin. His face was flushed a deep red, but that wasn’t the only place that the blood had rushed too. 

Unfortunately for Quackity, it was now just bright enough outside for the room to be illuminated well enough for Karl to be able to make out every detail of Quackity’s appearance, including his sudden erection. “I- f- fuck, this is..” Quackity stammered, sloppily trying to hide himself with his hands. It wasn’t working. “This- this is  _ really  _ fucking horrible...” Karl looked away at the ceiling in the next room over, mortified on Quackity’s behalf. He didn’t know what to say, and even if he did, he was still panting, trying to catch his breath, as was Quackity. 

“Ah, K- Karl I’m really sorry...” Quackity murmured, his voice thick with shame and awkwardness. Karl looked back at Quackity for only a fraction of a second before settling his gaze on the cupboards behind him. “It’s fine.” Karl replied under his breath. His face was burning, he felt dizzy, and he could only imagine how Quackity felt. “B- besides, I- I’m also... kind of....” He didn’t need to say anything else. Quackity nodded awkwardly.

“I- I need to, go, you know..” 

And then Quackity grabbed his phone and rushed off in the direction of his room, pulling his top down in a last effort to cover his crotch, leaving Karl alone in the kitchen, which now felt very empty. 

After somewhat recovering from the experience, Karl hastily walked into the living room, wanting to put some distance between him and Quackity, at least for the next few minutes, and sat on the couch. Karl pressed his face into his hands. He felt hot and sticky, like he was in his own little bubble where it was ten times as humid as the surrounding air. Karl sighed shakily. He just needed to calm down. 

After about twelve minutes (he counted) Karl rose from the couch, finally ready to go back to sleep, as his alertness had faded and he now felt like he was going to pass out any second. Karl made his way back to Sapnap’s room, trailing a hand along the wall to support himself, but when he cracked the door open, he saw that Sapnap was now laying in the middle of the bed. Karl wouldn’t fit. 

Great. 

Karl felt his cheeks heat up once again as he slowly made his way to Quackity’s room. He paused outside the door, having some conflicting thoughts, but eventually he just softly knocked. There was a small commotion inside, and Karl heard something probably plastic hit the floor as Quackity called out, “Just a sec!” A second later, the door opened, and Quackity just stood there staring at Karl for a moment. Now, he was wearing a looser T-shirt, but he hadn’t put on pants. Karl smiled awkwardly. “Nick’s taking up the entire bed...” He explained as he scratched the back of his neck, and Quackity chuckled as he moved aside to let him in. 

Karl decided to ignore how hot the air in the room seemed while Quackity closed the door behind him. “There’s even less bed room here..” Quackity said, his words slightly slurred. He was still obviously embarrassed from earlier, and he also seemed extremely exhausted, like  _ something _ had seriously drained him. He was swaying on his feet, and he was fighting to keep his eyes open, so Karl guided him to the bed. “I’ll leave if you want me too.” Karl told him, but Quackity shook his head. “No.” was all that he said, and so Karl got into bed with him and tugged the blankets over himself and Quackity. 

The two of them soon fell asleep holding each other close. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You ever just go make out with one of your boyfriends while the other one’s asleep like two rooms over? 
> 
> I also wanna clear a something up about this plot because I feel like people might be confused after reading Karl’s “You and I have talked more than Nick and I have” line: Quackity and Karl have been texting/calling a lot, but I didn’t include that because this fic is mostly focused on Sapnap, sorry ab that


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys partake in some banter.

  
When Sapnap finally woke up, the space beside him in the bed was empty. His room was bright with the afternoon sun seeping in through his blinds, and the house was silent. He sat up, feeling groggy, and checked his phone for the time. 1:27 pm. Wow, he’d been asleep for a long time. He wondered if Karl and Quackity were awake too, and if they were, what they were doing.

With a groan, Sapnap got out of bed and grabbed his phone. He walked out of his room and was met with more bright sunlight and silence. It didn’t even sound like the animals were around. When Sapnap entered the kitchen, he found it empty. There was a singular plate in the dish draining rack next to the sink, so someone had been up sometime earlier, not to mention the fact that the lights above the sink were also on. Whoever had turned them on had forgotten to turn them off. 

With a sigh, Sapnap turned off the lights before leaving the kitchen. No one was in the living room either. He considered texting Karl to ask where he was since he appeared to have just disappeared, but decided to check on Quackity first. If they were both missing, then he would start worrying. As Sapnap turned to leave the living room, he spotted Storm lounging on a chair, giving him an annoyed ‘why-did-you-wake-me-up-dad’ look. Sapnap scratched behind Storm’s ears as an apology before starting towards the guest bedroom. 

There was barely any light coming from under the door, so the blinds covering the window must still be closed. Gently, Sapnap cracked the door open, looking inside and hoping that the other two would be there. They were, fortunately, but they were still asleep. Karl was laying on his back, while Quackity was on his stomach, practically laying on top of Karl’s body as well as pinning one of Karl’s arms beneath him. One of Quackity’s feet was hanging off the edge of the bed, while his other leg was, of course, draped across Karl so that his knee was between Karl’s legs. Quackity was partially straddling Karl’s hips, and the blankets had all more or less been discarded on the floor. 

Quackity then let out a slurred moan in his sleep and shifted his body slightly upwards, burying his face against Karl’s neck. Not wanting to wake them up, Sapnap turned away and closed the door again. Then, he returned to the kitchen, fed the cats and Cash, and decided to go get groceries in order to force himself to wake up, and either way it was time for him to go shopping again. Sapnap scribbled a quick note, set it on the counter where Karl or Quackity would obviously see it if they woke up while he was gone, and then he left. 

When Quackity woke up, the first thing he saw was Karl’s neck and chin. At first he was confused, but then the events of the early morning came crashing back into mind, and Quackity hurriedly scrabbled away and promptly fell off of the bed. He landed directly on his tailbone and yelped in pain. Karl was awake in a second and shot up into a sitting position. “Are you okay?!” He exclaimed, panicked, and Quackity looked up at him, somewhat flushed. “We didn’t have sex, did we?” He questioned worriedly, diving straight to the point. 

Karl instantly turned red, and looked away. _ “No-!” _ He replied swiftly, and Quackity let out a relieved sigh as he collapsed backwards onto his back. “Thank god.” He mumbled. He sat up again only a moment later. “I don’t mean that I wouldn’t have sex with you-“ He began to sputter, but Karl held up a hand to stop him from making the moment even more embarrassing. “I know what you mean! Besides, you  know I’m ace!” Quackity didn’t reply, embarrassed, and Karl let out a breath through his nose.

“You know what I mean! I- I’m not  revolted by- I’d still, maybe- never mind, I- I’m just gonna go make some coffee.” 

And then Karl was hurriedly walking out of the room, leaving Quackity still sitting on the floor, redder than a tomato. Fuck. 

After a minute or two of sitting on the floor and feeling flustered, Quackity grabbed a hoodie from his suitcase and slipped it on before leaving the room as well, following the smell of coffee grounds to the kitchen. The hard floor was cold beneath his feet, but he didn’t really care. The only thing that mattered at the moment was clearing things up with Karl, who was leaning against the counter and reading a note.

“Um,” he mumbled awkwardly, catching Karl’s attention, “I’m sorry. I should have kept my fucking mouth shut.” Quackity shoved his hands into the hoodie’s pocket to wring his fingers together. When Karl didn’t reply right away, he started to panic a little bit. “I hope this doesn’t ruin anything, fuck, I’m an asshole.” 

“You’re not.” 

Karl was glaring at him now. “You’re not,” he repeated, “do you want me to tell you how much of the  opposite of an asshole you are?” Quackity stopped breathing, just staring at Karl with wide, nervous eyes. Karl never swore. Slowly, he nodded, and the sharpness immediately faded from Karl’s voice. “Come here.” Opening his arms invitingly. Quackity once again threw himself into Karl’s embrace. Karl ran his hands through Quackity’s hair, gently removing tangles with his fingers. “You’re one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met. Sure, everyone calls you a jerk sometimes, but it’s always in good humor. You never fail to make everyone smile. I can’t describe how many times you’ve seriously turned my day around. Some stupid awkward conversation isn’t going to change anything.” 

Quackity nodded into Karl’s neck, not knowing how to reply. Finally, he let out a laugh, his breath tickling Karl’s skin. “Is the coffee done yet? I’m not starting off my day by getting emotional and without caffeine.” Karl smiled and ruffled Quackity’s hair, causing him to groan, “Not you too!” which made them both burst into laughter. Quackity released Karl so he could pour them both a mug of coffee and hoisted himself up to sit on the counter. Karl handed him a steaming mug of dark brown liquid a moment later, and let out a huff of amusement at the younger man’s placement. “You’re like a cat.” He noted, and Quackity rolled his eyes, smirking. “Whatever.”

Karl leaned against the counter next to Quackity with his back to the kitchen so that they were facing opposite directions. “Wheres Nick?” Quackity questioned, and Karl lightly hit the countertop. “Oh yeah! He went shopping. I don’t know how long ago, but he said he’d be back shortly.” Quackity nodded in understanding and took a sip of coffee. Karl scrunched his face up as he watched Quackity, who shot him a confused look. “You can just drink it black like that?” He asked, and Quackity shrugged. “Yeah? Sugar and shit makes it taste kinda gross.” He replied, looking pointedly at Karl, who was in the process of stirring a packet of sugar onto his cup with a spoon. 

“I like things sweet.” 

“Oh yeah? You called me sweet.”

Karl chuckled. “And I meant it, because I like you.” 

Quackity’s reply was drowned out by the sound of the front door opening and Cash scrabbling through the house to bark at who Karl and Quackity both assumed to be Sapnap. There was a hasty shushing noise of “Cash! Shush!” from across the house, and Quackity smiled. “He must think we’re still asleep.” He noted, and Karl too smiled. “That’s sweet.”

A couple moments later, Sapnap was stumbling into the kitchen carrying two full bags of groceries and panting. He was glistening with sweat and the collar and armpits of his shirt were visibly wet. “Oh my god it’s hotter than the pits of hell out there, forgive me but I’m going shirtless now.” He whined, barely acknowledging Karl or Quackity as he set the bags down on the counter to promptly rip his shirt off and carelessly drop it on the floor. “The fuck happened to you? You look like you ditched the car to jog to the store and back.” Quackity said, and Sapnap finally looked over at them. 

“Apparently the AC in my car is fucking broken now,” Sapnap growled, “store was unbelievably crowded, and a kid recognized me too, asked for a picture; also good afternoon, sorry if I evicted you from the bed last night Karl...” Sapnap paused his rant to sigh moodily, and Quackity said, “Afternoon, god... uh, what’d the kid say?” Sapnap wiped sweat off of his forehead with the back of his hand before replying, “Not much. He asked if I was Sapnap, and when I said yes he told me that my content really cheers him up and then asked for a picture. Oh, also told me to say hi to you guys for him.”

“Aww,” Karl cooed, “that’s awesome.” 

“Yeah,” Sapnap groaned in response, “except now there’s probably a picture of me being sweaty and gross looking floating around the internet.” 

“Wrong!” Quackity exclaimed. He took another sip of coffee before continuing, “You don’t look gross!” Sapnap scoffed. “Sorry Alex but you’re very wrong. Have you seen me?” Sapnap said, gesturing to himself, and Quackity smirked, taking the opportunity to slowly take in another mouthful of coffee as he eyed Sapnap up and down, an almost hungry look in his eyes. “I have,” he slowly replied, drawing out the moment with a mischievous grin, “and you’re total eye candy.” Sapnap scoffed again, only now he was blushing. “Whatever.” He replied. 

“It’s true, you’re very attractive.” Quackity countered. Sapnap turned even redder as Quackity continued to stare. “Remind me never to go shirtless around you again, please,” Sapnap then grumbled, “I’m going to take a shower.” He picked his shirt up off the floor and started to walk away, but Quackity grabbed a sugar packet from Karl and tossed it at him, hitting Sapnap in the shoulder just before he left the kitchen. Sapnap turned around to look at him. Quackity grinned.

_ “Eye candy~”  _


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sapnap gets a call on the phone.

  
“No- Karl you’re gonna die!!”

“I will if you keep distracting me!”

Sapnap could hear Quackity screaming from the other room as he watched the screen over Karl’s shoulder. Both Sapnap and Quackity were streaming the new Minecraft survival world that they’d made. Right now, they were in the nether and Karl had been fighting two wither skeletons while also being attacked by blazes. 

“Al- Quackity,” Sapnap started, “it’s fine, we’re on 3 and a half hearts.” He heard Quackity scoff. “That’s low! You’re low! You’re gonna fucking die!” Quackity sputtered while Karl raised his shield to eat. “Thank you!” Quackity sighed as his character came around a corner to guard Karl, who was playing on Sapnap’s account. Their portal had spawned in a really bad area, and it had taken them an hour alone to find the fortress, but Sapnap had spotted two bastions in that time, which had held pretty good loot. 

Finally, they got enough blaze rods to leave, and Quackity couldn’t be more relieved. It was cute. They’d been streaming for five hours already, and it was almost 8 pm. After Sapnap had returned from the store, nothing too exciting had happened. He’d taken a shower, Karl had cooked for them, and then Quackity had dragged Karl into another room to talk with him about something important. After that, they started streaming, and they hadn’t paused once. 

Sapnap’s chat was spamming messages telling them to take a water break, and Sapnap eyed the desk, noticing that they were indeed out of water. Sapnap stood up and stretched, and Karl looked back at him with confusion. “Where are you going?” He asked, and Sapnap shot him a grin. “I’m refilling your water supply so you don’t die.” He said. Karl chuckled. “Alright, thank you, I appreciate it.” He replied as he handed Sapnap the water bottle.

“Hit me up too Nick, please!” Quackity hastily put in, and Sapnap smirked at the screen, where Quackity’s avatar was attacking magma cubes. “Of course Alex.” Sapnap bowed slightly, making Karl laugh, as he removed his headset to leave the room. Sapnap walked into the kitchen first and set Karl’s water bottle on the counter before sneaking over to the guest bedroom. He waited outside of the door for a couple seconds before suddenly bursting in. Quackity let out a scream and nearly fell out of his chair as he scrambled away from Sapnap, who was now leaning in very close to the camera. “Hellooo Quackity’s chat!” He bellowed, grinning.

Quackity, now laughing, grabbed Sapnap’s wrist, trying to pull him away from the screen, but instead he just pulled his own chair towards Sapnap and crashed into him. With a squeal, Sapnap fell into Quackity’s lap, his heart racing. “Why would you think that’s a good idea?!” Sapnap asked through uncontrollable laughter. Quackity punched him on the arm and shoved him off of his lap. His face was bright red.

“That was your fault!”

“How? Did you forget that the chair had wheels?” 

“God, I hate you…”

Sapnap chuckled, “You love me~”

Quackity rolled his eyes, saying nothing. Chat was going feral. “Thank you Sapnap, now that’s going to get clipped.” Quackity grumbled, and then a second later, “Karl shut the fuck up, that wasn’t funny!” Sapnap stood up, putting the torment to an end, and grabbed Quackity’s water bottle. “I’ll be back soon.” He said, shooting Quackity a smirk before exiting the room. 

It didn’t take long to refill the water bottles, so pretty soon Sapnap was back in his seat next to Karl, watching as he and Quackity worked on the house that they’d started making. Then Sapnap got an idea. “Oh my god!” He exclaimed, earning the attention of his boyfriends. “Guys we could turn this world into our own SMP!” Karl gasped, obviously into the idea. “The Dream SMP and the Sapnap SMP!” Quackity put in. They both sounded adorably excited. 

“Hey Karl? We got a pigstep disc, right?” Quackity asked as they were collecting more wood. Karl nodded to the stream. “Yup!” He confirmed, and Quackity’s avatar quickly started running back to their house. “It’s in one of the chests,” Sapnap said, “also Karl, don’t forget to invite yourself to the world.” Karl nodded again, a small smile on his lips, “Yup.” He repeated.

This was nice. This is what Sapnap wanted for the rest of his life: Happy moments with these two, playing Minecraft and falling even deeper in love. Quackity had built a jukebox, and now he was playing pigstep while Karl collected wood. Night was falling in the game when Karl and Quackity were just about done with the house. They just needed another handful of stair blocks to finish the roof and then they would be done. 

Karl quickly crafted a bed so that they could skip through the nighttime. He set it down in a bare corner of the house and clicked it, setting his new spawn point. A second later, Quackity too made a bed, and he set it down next to Karl’s. Chat was freaking out, and Sapnap nudged Karl suggestively. “Ooh, Karrl~” He trilled, and Karl averted his eyes, slightly flustered and unbeknownst to Sapnap, thinking about the moment he’d had with Quackity in the dim hours of the morning.

And then, Sapnap’s phone began ringing, spoiling the moment. He picked it up, annoyed at first until he saw that it was Dream calling. He awkwardly excused himself and left the room as he picked up. “Hey Dream!” He hissed as he sped to the living room so his voice wouldn’t disturb the streams. “Sapnap!” Dream replied happily. “How’ve you been?” Sapnap asked, smiling as he sat down on the couch. “I’ve been good, I’ve been good, but that doesn’t matter, tell me about you!” 

Giggling, Sapnap began fidgeting with a loose string on his shirt. “Dream, I think I’m dead,” Sapnap replied, “everything that’s been going on is way too good to be true.” 

“Oh really~?” Dream asked, sounding  very interested in Sapnap’s words. Sapnap could see him leaning forwards in his chair, resting his chin on a strong hand. See the knowing grin on his face, rimmed by his short but fluffy dirty blond hair. Green eyes sparkling with curiosity. One of Sapnap’s biggest flexes was that he’d seen Dream’s face before, just once, for three days when he’d flown to Florida, but it counted. 

“Yes really~” Sapnap said back, lowering his voice, “I’m only saying this because it’s you, and only you. Please don’t tell anyone else yet but we did it, we’re a thing!” As Sapnap spoke, he stoodand began hopping around the living room, vigorously shaking one of his hands out of giddiness. Dream was scream-giggling on the other end of the phone. “Yes! Let’s go!” He exclaimed. Sapnap was endlessly grateful that this supportive, wonderful person was his friend. 

“And Sapnap,” Dream then said in a calmer, more serious tone, “I’ll never tell a soul. Not until you’re all ready.” 

“Thank you, Dream. I mean it. I really don’t deserve you.” Sapnap replied fondly. He could hear the smile in Dream’s voice when he said, “Of course dude, any time. I love you.” Sapnap chuckled, blushing, and sat back down. “Love you too Dream,” he paused, smirked and then continued, “now you just have to get George to say it.” Dream wheezed loudly. “Y- yeah!” He agreed through gasps for air. 

After another couple minutes of talking, Quackity entered the room and sat next to Sapnap on the couch. He looked a little tired, and snuggled up close to Sapnap, leaning his head on his shoulder, ignoring the fact that he was on the phone, but to Sapnap, the phone and Dream were no longer priorities. “Hey,” he greeted softly, “end the stream?” Sapnap used his free hand to remove Quackity’s beanie and ruffle his hair. Quackity groaned and turned his face into Sapnap’s neck. “No.” He said. 

Sapnap looked down at him. “No? Why are you out here then?” To the fandom, Sapnap was the loud, confident man with the humor of a middle school boy that would joke about your mother and then step on you, but with Quackity and Karl, he was a softy that couldn’t hurt a fly. The slightest thing would turn him red and he would act like a hopeless, lovesick idiot. 

“I want you.” Quackity muttered, and like a switch had been flipped, Sapnap turned red. “Alex, I’m on the phone.” He said. Quackity shot him a look and Sapnap returned it. “Well, hang up.” Sapnap laughed, and heard Dream’s wheeze accompany his own. “I can’t do that, it’s Dream!” Quackity didn’t reply, but he did suddenly grab Sapnap’s phone. “Dream!” He called out.

“Quackity!” Sapnap faintly heard Dream reply. “Dream, kindly hang up so that I can cuddle my boyfriend before the stream gets suspicious of how long I’m gone.” Sapnap didn’t hear Dream’s reply through his burst of laughter, but soon enough, he did hang up. Sapnap took his phone back and set in on the floor next to the couch before embracing Quackity and kissing his forehead. 

They only got about a minute of silence before Karl too joined them. “I thought you said you were going to the bathroom!” He exclaimed. No response. “Quackity, your chat is going insane, they think you’re doing inappropriate stuff.” Sapnap laughed, and Quackity once again didn’t reply. “Is he dead or something?” Karl asked. Sapnap tilted Quackity’s head away from his shoulder to look at him and make sure that he was, in fact, alive. “No, but he is asleep.”

Together, after laughing about how easily he fell asleep, Sapnap and Karl lay Quackity down on the couch and put a blanket over him before leaving him to sleep. As they were walking, Sapnap thought of something, and turned to Karl. “Hey, I get it if it’s not my business but what did you guys talk about earlier that you said was important?” Karl thought for a moment before realizing what Sapnap meant. “Oh,  _ that. _This morning he woke up and panicked for a moment because of.. _something,_ so he wanted to apologize for jumping to accusations. Everything’s good.” 

“Ah, alright, good.” Sapnap nodded.

“How the hell do you work this?” 

Sapnap glared at the PC as he tried to figure out how Quackity’s stream was set up. Finally, he got it to work, and his frown was instantly replaced by a grin as he logged back into the Minecraft world with Karl. It was amusing how both of them were playing on accounts that didn’t belong to them, and Sapnap was startled multiple times by his own Minecraft avatar walking up to him. Chat found this hilarious.

About a half hour after Sapnap took over Quackity’s stream, Karl received an invite to a discord call. “It’s Dream?” He stated, confused, and Sapnap leaned forwards in his chair. “He probably doesn’t know that it’s not me, add him to our call.” Karl’s in-game character paused as he took his hands away from the controls to deal with Dream. Discord notified them of another person joining the call. “Hello?” Karl said at the same time as Sapnap said, “Dream?” 

Dream wasted absolutely no time. He just got straight to the point. “I think something’s wrong.” He sounded worried. Worried and terrified. Sapnap felt his heart drop. Oh no. What...?

“I think someone knows you guys are a thing.” 


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shit hits the fan but at least Sapnap is a master at changing the topic.

**TW: PANIC ATTACK IN THIS CHAPTER**

  
  
“I- I don’t know, I was scrolling on Twitter and I saw- I’m sorry Nick I don’t know what happened, it wasn’t me, I promise...” Dream was blabbering. On and on. Spewing out words that just muddled together in Sapnap’s brain. He couldn’t feel. He couldn’t see. He couldn’t breathe. He was going to cry.

_ “Dream!” _ He suddenly snapped. Sapnap’s voice cracked on the word, and everyone fell silent. “Dream I’m fucking streaming.” Sapnap was crying now. Luckily though, he’d turned off the face cam so no one could see his ugly expression. “I- I’m live.  _ We’re _ live.” Dream fell silent. Anyone else would scream and get angry, but Sapnap didn’t. It wasn’t Dream’s fault, he knew that. “Oh my god...” Dream muttered. His voice was thick with guilt, and Sapnap felt horrible for him.

“Nick-  _Nick!_ Are you okay?” Karl suddenly asked as he came out of nowhere. He must have left Sapnap’s room when Dream was talking, that’s why he’d gone silent. Sapnap shook his head. His words caught in his throat. Karl looked terrified. There were other emotions behind his azure gaze, but mostly he looked scared. Sapnap hated that. He hated that Karl looked scared. Sapnap ripped the headset off and gripped his hair with his fists, tugging, using the pain to ignore what had just happened. He screamed. 

The next thing he felt were Karl’s arms around him, dragging him out of the chair, ripping his hands away from his head, holding him. The door to the room slammed open, and then Quackity was standing there. He didn’t know what was going on, but as soon as he saw Sapnap shaking in Karl’s arms; saw Karl’s expression, he was ready to murder someone. 

He stomped over to the chair and glared into the stream even thought the face cam was now off. “What the fuck happened?!” He snarled as he dawned the headset. “What the fuck-?!” Dream interrupted him. “Quackity, it’s my fault, I fucked up.” Quackity’s expression darkened even more. “What did you do? Is this because of what I said?” The newfound lack of anger in his voice was even scarier than when he’d been fuming. “No, I- you know I’m not like that. End the stream and I’ll explain everything.”

“No, whatever happened already got clipped. Thousands of people already know, so you might as well-!”

“Alex... please.” Karl’s voice brought Quackity down from his throne of anger, and less than a minute later, the stream was over and Quackity had deleted the VOD. “Dream, I know you. Or, I think I do, so this probably wasn’t your fault, so please tell me everything after I talk to them.” Quackity said, far calmer now, before muting himself to give the three of them upmost privacy. 

Quackity crouched next to Sapnap and Karl and gently asked what happened. Karl’s mouth opened and closed as he tried to figure out exactly what to say, but he didn’t know the full story. “I- I think he told Dream, and Dream didn’t know we were streaming. He thought something about us got leaked so he called to tell us, but accidentally...” Karl had to pause to take a shaky breath, “accidentally outed us to both streams.” 

As Quackity processed the information, he tried to multitask to calm Sapnap down, but it seemed like he was in a completely different world. He was trembling beyond control and glistening with sweat. When Karl pressed a hand to his chest, he could feel his heart beating faster than normal as well. “Nick, Nick, everything’s okay. We’re gonna get through this.” Quackity tried, reaching out to rub Sapnap’s back. Sapnap opened his mouth to reply, but it felt like he couldn’t even get air out, let alone words.

Something bad was going to happen. It wouldn’t be okay. Something really bad was going to happen and they wouldn’t be able to pick themselves back up after. This was something beyond their control now, because instead of only four people knowing about them, at least 20,000 people did. Everything was going downhill. Fuck, fuck,  _ FUCK!  _

“I, I can’t... I’m gonna th- throw up.”

And then Karl realized, “Oh my god, he’s having a panic attack.” Quackity’s attention snapped over to Karl, terrified. “What do we do?” He asked worriedly. Quackity had never seen Karl look more afraid when he replied, “I have no idea.” 

“Dream what do you do if someone’s having a panic attack?!” Quackity quickly hollered into the mic. He heard Dream suck in a breath before hurriedly replying, “Uh, shit- breathing- breathing slowly, make him breathe, drink water, ground himself-“ Quackity didn’t listen to anything else that Dream had to say. That would be enough, at least for now. Quackity relayed this information to Karl, and then they did their best to help.

It took at least a two minutes to just get Sapnap to pay attention to them for more than five seconds at a time, but after that he recovered fairly quickly, much to everyone’s relief. After that, Karl helped him stand and walk to another room so he could lay down without having to go through the experience again while he and Quackity talked with Dream. 

“Okay, well,” Dream started once Karl was back, “he’s been talking to me since the beginning of all of this, when he first realized that he was in love with you two, and he also told me that you three did get together, congratulations by the way. I’d never purposefully out any of you to anyone without consent. I didn’t know you were streaming, and he didn’t pick up his phone when I called, so I started to panic. God, I’m so sorry.” 

When he was done speaking, Quackity bit his lip and punched the desk. “Fuck, so that’s why his phone kept going off, that was you.” He growled. Dream confirmed this, and Karl slumped onto the bed. “And whats even stupider is that I think that goddamn Twitter thing was a fucking joke.” Dream snarled, and Quackity heard a slam and the sound of something breaking. “Dream, it wasn’t your fault.” Quackity said, and Dream scoffed, his voice tight with pain. “Yeah but it feels like it is! It feels like it’s my fault! It’s my fault that the whole world knows about you now, and it’s my fault that Nick had a panic attack!” 

Quackity just let Dream have a moment of silence. His ragged breaths coming through the mic were the only sounds for a moment, but then Quackity started to speak again, like he was trying to calm down a cornered animal. “Dream, think whatever you want now, but after everything’s calmed down I want you to know that this wasn’t your fault.” Quackity ordered, and Dream sighed, grounding himself. “Yeah, um, thank you.. and I’m sorry again. I really am.” 

“We know, Dream.” Karl said, coming to stand behind Quackity. Quackity leaned back against him. “Well, I’m going to tweet something before Dream gets cancelled.” Quackity murmured as he pulled out his phone. Already the Twitter notifications were going wilder than usual. Karl watched him type as Dream left the call.  _ “What Dream did on stream was an accident. If you clipped anything, be a decent person and delete it, please.” _ Tweet. It was out there. Karl too pulled out his phone so he could retweet it. 

“People probably aren’t going to delete anything.” Karl stated, and Quackity shrugged, a sour look on his face. “If they have even an ounce of respect for another human being, they’ll delete the clips.” Karl said nothing to this and decided to change the subject. “Dream said that from the beginning, he’s said that he loves us.” Quackity bit his lip until he tasted blood. “Sometimes I feel like I don’t deserve you...” Karl then muttered, sounding dejected, and Quackity spun the chair around so that they were facing each other. 

“Don’t say that,” he said, looking up at Karl with pleading eyes, “please don’t say that. You deserve everything, and I’d give you the world if you asked for it.” 

“The world isn’t yours to give.” Karl replied, crouching down so that Quackity was the taller one now. There were tears brimming in Quackity’s eyes.

“If you asked for it, it would be.” 

There was a soft scoff from the doorway. “Fuck just the world, if you guys asked for the sun and moon, I would get them with my bare hands and fight anyone who tried to stop me,” Sapnap stood there, looking at them with nothing but genuine love, “if you told me to punch myself until I passed out, I would. If you told me to jump off of a building, I would, if-“ Karl cut him off. “What if I ask you to come here.” It wasn’t a question.

Sapnap practically skipped over to the two of them, and Karl immediately wrapped him in a hug, trapping him between Karl’s body and Quackity’s chair. “Hey.” Quackity said, and Sapnap tilted his head back until it was resting on Quackity’s thighs. “Hey.” Sapnap said as Quackity cupped his cheeks and starting tracing shapes on his skin. “How do you feel?” Sapnap shrugged. “Like crap I guess, but I’m better than before.” Karl leaned forwards as he spoke to press his face against Sapnap’s neck, lightly kissing his exposed skin. “I’m glad you feel better.” He mumbled.

“That’s good, because we need to talk.” Quackity said. Sapnap’s face must be red by now. There was no way that he wasn’t blushing. If the circumstances were any different, this seemed like a situation that would definitely  escalate , but Sapnap know that it wouldn’t. “Yeah.” He replied dumbly. 

“Well,” Karl started, “Alex and I tweeted about it, actually, Alex did, but that’s not the point. We need to figure out what to do next. We could either tell everyone, or we could say it was a joke.” Quackity nodded along with what he was saying, and Sapnap was too drunk on the feeling of Quackity’s hands on his face to listen properly. “No one will believe us if we say it was a joke. They all saw and heard our reactions.” Quackity stated, and Karl sighed. “You’re right...” 

“Why are we all so touchy with each other?” Sapnap pondered out of nowhere. When no one replied, he raised his head from Quackity’s lap. “I mean it, why are we so touchy with each other? Normal people in relationships wait until a couple months before they even go for kisses on the cheek, but Alex, you kissed me on the mouth on day one. Karl, you were the most uncertain out of all of us and you still also kissed me on day one. Hell, we’ve been dating for less than 48 hours and I can’t count the number of times that we’ve kissed.

“I already said this but I love you. I’ve loved you for weeks now. I know you must feel the same, because we wouldn’t even be in this scenario if that wasn’t true.” Sapnap knew he was rambling, but he didn’t care. Quackity was the first one to reply. “You’re changing the subject, but you’re right. If you’re unsure of your feelings, you don’t go straight to cuddling right away, and you sure as hell don’t hop from starting to date to making out in less than a day.” Sapnap whipped around to look at Quackity at that. “When did this happen??”

“Before you woke up this morning...” Quackity admitted, embarrassed. “6 am...” Karl added, but Quackity spoke again before Sapnap could say anything. “A- anyways, I don’t think that any of us were ever unsure about our  _ feelings _ , I think that we were unsure about our feelings being _returned.”_ Karl nodded in agreement, and Sapnap took in a breath before saying, “Well I’m not going back on what I said before: I love you two. I love you and I’m going to love you until the day I die.” 

Karl smiled, the previous issue now forgotten. “I.. love you too.” He mumbled, trying out the words in his mouth. “I’m in love with you too!” He then exclaimed louder, with more confidence. Sapnap’s grin was so wide that it hurt. This. Everything about this. They were unstoppable, and nothing could bring them down if they had each other because they would just build each other back up. “I fucking love you too!” Quackity said, and Sapnap felt completed for once. These were his soulmates, he knew it. 

But of course the moment had to be ruined by Quackity pointing out the obvious. “We still have to deal with what happened in the stream though.” Sapnap thought for a moment, and then got an idea. He rocketed to his feet. “What time is it?” He asked. “Uhh, almost 10:30 pm .” Karl said after checking his watch. Sapnap smiled. Perfect. “Hear me out: Screw what happened in the stream, who wants to go swimming?” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I might take a little break from writing because I feel like some of these last chapters have been really choppy and I wanna be able to upload good quality writing. Thanks for understanding. <3


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sapnap brings Karl and Quackity to a place from his childhood.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Little bit of a heads up, this chapter is  
> l o n g.

  
“It’s the middle of the night, and we can’t just ignore it forever.”

“I’m not saying that we’re going to ignore it  _ forever,” _ Sapnap replied, “just that we’re going to ignore it for  _now.”_ Quackity shot him a quizzical look, and Sapnap shrugged to himself. “I didn’t ask you guys to come here to get stressed out by thousands of people trying to pry into your private lives, I asked you guys here because I wanted to be with you, and here we are, so I propose that we just disappear from social media until you guys fly home.” 

Quackity opened his mouth to reply, but decided against saying what he was thinking, so he fell silent. “Well, it’s a good idea, it just might get way worse by the end of the next five or so days.” Karl noted, and Sapnap nodded along with what he was saying, but he didn’t give in. “Maybe. But I stand by what I said, we shouldn’t cave to what strangers want instead of enjoying ourselves, so I’m going to go start the car now.”

As Sapnap left the room, Karl and Quackity shared a glance. After Sapnap had recovered from the incident with Dream, he seemed determined to ignore the fact that anything had happened. “I guess we’re going swimming?” Karl said to Quackity, who seemed as confused as Karl was. “But there’s not- oh. Oh, he is not driving to the ocean-“ Quackity started, trailing off as he fled from the guest room to find Sapnap. The front door had just clicked shut when Quackity came upon it, and so he pulled it open again and followed Sapnap outside.

“Nick, please tell me you’re not driving us to the ocean at almost 11 fucking pm.” Sapnap looked up at him innocently as he started the car. “Why? What’s wrong with that?” Quackity sighed and face palmed. “A lot of stuff? Isn’t-“

“There’s a public beach that I used to go to as a kid, as far as I know, it’s open 24 hours.” Quackity just stared at him, trying to form words. Of course, he wasn’t against the idea at all, but... “Wouldn’t it take over an hour to get there? And either way, it’s dark and it’ll be freezing.” Sapnap got out of the car and walked over to Quackity before setting a hand on his shoulder. “Trust me. Please.” That was all it took.

Not even five minutes later, they were piled into the car, this time with Karl in the back seat with a bag full of towels and blankets. Quackity was in the passengers seat, and Sapnap was driving. Quackity was the navigator, and it was up to him to convey the Google maps information to Sapnap as he drove. From Sapnap’s house it would take almost 2 hours to get to their destination, so they’d prepared for the journey by stopping to get Monsters at the gas station.

The same man that was working when Karl first arrived was behind the counter, and Sapnap shared a look with him when he entered, Karl and Quackity following at his heels. They’d all put on swimwear before they left the house, but Karl was the only one who looked normally dressed (for someone going somewhere in the middle of the night), as he was wearing a hoodie and jeans over his other clothes. Sapnap was wearing a hoodie so that he wasn’t topless, otherwise he hadn’t brought a shirt, but Quackity just had a towel draped across his shoulders. 

“Going somewhere?” The cashier askedfriendlily when Sapnap paused to pull out his wallet, allowing the other two to go in ahead of him. “Uh, yeah,” Sapnap mumbled a little awkwardly, “you ever been to that public beach on the Gulf?” The man shook his head. “I’ve never been to any ocean before.” Sapnap chuckled. “No offense but that’s a little sad.” The man grinned. “None taken. I’m Aiden by the way.” Sapnap held out a hand. “Nick. Nice to meet you.” 

“Nick, what flavor Monster do you want, and I’m paying this time.” Karl suddenly said, getting Sapnap’s attention as he came out of an aisle. “Uh..” He thought for a moment, and in that time Aiden released his hand and offered Karl a welcoming smile. “The cyan one,” he finally said, “I forgot what it’s called, fiesta something.” Karl gave him a thumbs up and walked back into the aisle, out of sight. “Thank you.” Sapnap called out to him. 

As Karl had said, this time he did pay, and once again Sapnap and Quackity thanked him as the three of them walked back out to the car. As soon as the door shut behind him, Quackity opened his Monster and took a long drink. “Woah there, don’t drink it all right away.” Sapnap teased, and Quackity playfully shoved him, rolling his eyes as the car pulled out of the parking lot.

“Do you know the cashier?” Karl asked after they were back on the road. Sapnap looked at him through the rear view mirror. “Not personally, well, not really at all. He seems nice though, doesn’t he?” Karl nodded and agreed before falling silent.

After about thirty minutes of silence, Quackity turned around in his seat and then giggled. “Aw, Karlos fell asleep.” He whispered. At the next stoplight, Sapnap too looked back. Karl was slumped over in his seat with his head pressed up against the window. Soft snores escaped his mouth. He looked peaceful, but Sapnap couldn’t stare. He had to drive. 

Finally, another hour had passed. It was past midnight now, and the beach was only twenty minutes away. Sapnap rolled down his window to smell the cool, salty air, and with it, memories came flooding back. He recognized the town that they were driving through, although he’d forgotten its name over the years, and he remembered sitting in the back of his parents’ car, face pressed against the glass as he anxiously awaited their arrival at the beach. He felt the same type of anxiousness now. He hadn’t been to the beach in at least ten years, and he desperately hoped that it hadn’t been closed. 

A couple minutes ago, Sapnap was beginning to nod off, and he had been only a couple seconds away from begging Quackity to talk to him to wake him up, but now he was too excited to be sleepy. And then, as they crested a hill, Sapnap saw the glint of the water in the distance. He let out an excited gasp that woke Karl, and happily pointed out that they were almost there. “I’m glad that you’re this excited.” Quackity said, and Sapnap shot him a quick look of confusion. “What do you mean?”

“I mean that I’m happy that you’re happy. Earlier, when you were scared, I hated that. I fucking hated that.” Sapnap blushed and looked away, but he knew how that felt. To hate the thing that’s making your loved ones scared. “I feel the same.” Karl softly said from the back, and Sapnap had to physically remind himself that he was in the process of driving a car that was traveling at 45 miles per hour. 

Sapnap remembered stopping at a little ice cream place along this road when he came here with his family, but it had closed years ago, before he stopped coming. Before everything almost fell apart. But that was in the past. The only thing that mattered now was the present. 

They had arrived at their destination. Sapnap pulled the car into the desolate parking lot and stepped outside. He took off his shoes and set them inside the car. The pavement was cold on his feet but the salty breeze was warm on his face. Quackity got out of the car next, and then Karl, carrying their bag. 

Sapnap smiled and looked at them as he removed his hoodie. “Told you to trust me.” He said, and didn’t wait for a reply before taking off towards the sand. He could hear Quackity and Karl’s feet slapping the ground behind him, but he didn’t stop and wait. He was too caught up in the moment. Finally, his feet hit the soft sand, and he felt like he was five again, coming here for the first time and feeling the hot sand beneath his feet. Except now the sand was cool, and he was no longer a child. 

The sound of the waves crashing against the shore was like music to his ears, and Sapnap sped up as he neared the water. He heard Karl shout something behind him, but he didn’t listen. And then, when he was close enough, he leapt. There was a drop off here, in this one spot, that he remembered as clear as day. Sapnap hit the water and immediately went under. There were only three words that could describe the euphoric moment: Cold as hell. 

With a surprised scream, Sapnap resurfaced, treading water as he rubbed the salt out of his eyes. He flipped his bangs out of his face and hastily started paddling back to shore. Quackity was losing it, and Karl looked like he was five seconds away from having a heart attack. Sapnap crawled out of the water, shivering, and sped towards his boyfriends. Karl handed him a towel, and he wrapped it around himself, trembling. “How was it?” Quackity taunted, and Sapnap grumbled back, “It’s lovely, go try it for yourself.” 

Of course it would be colder than he remembered. It was one in the morning for goodness sake. Sapnap’s mouth tasted disgusting, and he knew that he’d swallowed some of the water. His eyes stung a little bit too, but he would get used to it in time. 

It didn’t take too long for him to warm up again, and after that, he set the towel on the sand to sit on top of it. Quackity had abandoned the towel covering his top as well, so how he was just sitting in his swimming shorts, the moonlight glinting off of his bare chest. “You’re not sweating are you?” Sapnap asked with disbelief. “I’m not, but I am pretty hot.” He mumbled back. Sapnap smirked. “I know just what to do.” He replied.

Quackity realized a second too late what Sapnap meant, and soon he was trapped in Sapnap’s arms, struggling to worm away, but Sapnap was strong, and Quackity had been caught off guard. “Karl-! Help me!” He shrieked, but this time Karl wasn’t going to get involved. “This time I’m gonna win, Alex!” Sapnap declared as he backed up towards the water. Soon, it was lapping at his heels, and Quackity tensed. “C’mon Alex, loosen up,” Sapnap whispered to him, practically breathing into his ear, “if your muscles are all tight like this, you’ll sink.” 

It was the perfect thing to do and say to get Quackity even more off guard, enough for Sapnap to pick him up and send them both into the ocean. Sapnap resurfaced almost immediately, and the moon illuminated the surface of the water just enough for him to see Quackity about two feet below him. His hair floated around his head like a halo and his chin was tilted towards the surface. He looked so absolutely godlike. And then he came rocketing upwards. 

When he broke the surface of the water, the first thing that Quackity did was practically vomit onto Sapnap. His hair stuck to his forehead, and he violently coughed out a mouthful of water, along with a burp that sounded like it hurt. Sapnap felt bad for him and pushed the hair out of Quackity’s face. “Are you okay? I’m sorry...” Sapnap told him. He was holding Quackity under the arms to keep him afloat while he hacked his lungs out. 

When he was done, Quackity’s icy glare was nearly enough to kill Sapnap where he was. “N- no I’m not fucking okay!” Quackity growled. “I’m sorry.” Sapnap apologized again and tried to lean in for a kiss, but Quackity pulled away, flushed. His body was hot to the touch despite the frigid water. “I taste like battery acid.” Quackity grumbled. 

The waves had pulled them a little ways away from the shore, not too far, but enough where the dim light no longer allowed them to clearly see Karl. The two let themselves to bob around in the soothing motion of the water for a couple more seconds before Quackity shivered and swam closer to Sapnap. “Let’s go back, it’s really cold.” He said. Sapnap couldn’t agree more. 

When they returned to the beach, Karl was waiting for them, and Sapnap could now see that he was standing with his ankles in the water. He’d ditched the jeans, but he still wore the hoodie. Dream’s merch. The little face smiled back at Sapnap, dark against the lime green fabric. Sapnap could also see that Karl was holding something, looking at it fondly. “What’d you find?” Quackity asked as he stood and walked over to Karl, shivering in the early air. 

Karl grinned and positioned his hand so that Quackity could see, and Sapnap approached them as well, peering over Quackity’s shoulder to see what Karl had. It was a dull orange snail shell, adorned with white speckles. There was a little crack in its back, and it was empty. “It’s a shell.” Karl pointed out, and Sapnap reached out to touch it. It was smooth and damp with saltwater, and it was very beautiful. “You take it.” Karl said to Sapnap, who took a step back. “No, you found it.” 

Quackity walked on the edge of the ocean so that the waves hit his feet as he searched the sand for shells or other treasures. Sapnap was walking a couple feet behind him. After Karl had discovered the shell, Quackity had been intent on finding his own, and Sapnap wanted to come with him. They’d walked far away from Karl now, who was staying back to watch their stuff, but they could still see him in the distance. 

“How did you know about that drop off?” Quackity asked, and Sapnap stopped walking. “Oh, um, I used to come here all the time with my family when I was a kid. Pretty much every other week, for four years, we’d come here and go swimming.” As he talked, Quackity noticed a small, fond smile forming on his lips. It was cute. “You never told me about that.” He noted, and Sapnap’s smile fell. “Yeah, we stopped coming when I turned ten, so I kinda forgot about it, and I guess I don’t like talking about it because then I remember how everything went to shit after that.” He chuckled bitterly. 

Quackity looked away, out over the ocean. “Oh, sorry, I didn’t know.” Sapnap made a dismissive ‘tch’ sound and brushed Quackity off with a wave of his hand. “Don’t be sorry, I never told you. It’s not like someone died or anything. I just got kinda distant. It doesn’t matter.” Sapnap said. Quackity watched him come to stand beside him, staring out at the Gulf, like if he squinted hard enough, he’d be able to see Florida on the horizon. 

“It does matter though. Nothing ‘doesn’t matter,’” Quackity chided, “but you don’t have to tell me.” Sapnap shook his head and sighed. “Nah, one of my sisters just told my parents that I wanted to do YouTube videos as like, a career I guess, and my dad didn’t like that. Just an argument, but it made me realize that I couldn’t just take shit from everyone all the time.

“And hey! Here we are! If I listened to my dad back then I never would have met you and Karl, and that would suck.” He finished, turning his head to smile at Quackity. Quackity nodded and looked down at the ground. “Oh! Hey..” He exclaimed to himself as he crouched down. Sapnap looked over his shoulder as he dug something out of the damp sand. Another snail shell. This one was also orange, except it was a little brighter than Karl’s shell, and there was a black stripe running along the back of the shell. 

“Your turn.” Quackity said to Sapnap, who snorted in amusement. “Yeah, whatever, I suck at finding shells.” Quackity glared halfheartedly at Sapnap. “You don’t suck.” He said simply. Sapnap smirked and lowered his gaze to scan the beach. The moon had started to dip towards the horizon, so there was even less light than before, but at least there weren’t any clouds. “I don’t, but I can~” 

Of course, Sapnap’s teasing earned him a friendly shove, and although it wasn’t that strong, it did send him another foot or so into the ocean, where the waves tripped him and caused him to fall on his ass. 

Quackity, once again, was losing it, and he collapsed onto his knees in the sand, laughing, as Sapnap yet again dragged himself out of the ocean. It was worse than before, when his entire body was cold, but now just Sapnap’s bottom half was wet, and the overall experience was not good. 

“Thank you, for that, Alex.” Sapnap mumbled sarcastically, and Quackity calmed himself down, looking over at Sapnap with innocent eyes as he stood and brushed himself off, like he hadn’t just done anything. “I didn’t mean for that to happen babe.” He said, and then froze. “Did you just call me ‘babe?’” Sapnap asked. He was grinning, and obviously flushed in the dim light, but Quackity just wanted to dive into the ocean and let the sharks take him. “Ah-! Sorry, it just slipped out, I didn’t mean to- i- is that okay? If I..?” 

“It’s okay.” Sapnap replied, pulling Quackity into a comforting hug. “Cool.” Sapnap heard Quackity whisper to himself as they stood there in the moonlight with nothing but the sound of the waves accompanying them. Sapnap sighed contentedly and pulled away, planting a small kiss on Quackity’s cheek as he did so. “Let’s keep looking for shells.” 

Another hour passed before Sapnap and Quackity returned to Karl. He was floating on his back in the ocean, not too far away from the land, bobbing up and down in the waves. Quackity and Sapnap had found at least five other shells that they liked before coming upon the end of the beach and turning around. 

“Hey!” Quackity called out, and trotted ahead of Sapnap to deposit their shells on a towel. There was another dull orange one that almost exactly matched Karl’s, a white one with a simple but amazing black web-like pattern, a pointy brown one with darker brown stripes, a conch, and a buttery yellow one. Sapnap still held the one that he’d discovered first, which was just a scallop shell. He put it next to the others as Karl walked up to them, water dripping from his frame. 

Unlike the other two, Karl was wearing a long sleeve swimming shirt, and it clung tightly to his soaked body. Karl grabbed his towel from the ground, shook the sand off away from Sapnap and Quackity and then wrapped it around his shoulders. “You guys were gone for a long time.” He noted somewhat suspiciously. Quackity scoffed dismissively. “We didn’t  do anything.” He said, putting an end to the conversation. 

Karl eased himself onto his knees so that he was crouching down next to Quackity. “What did you get in your haul?” He asked curiously, and Quackity hastily launched into a description of their shell hunting adventure, using hand gestures absentmindedly as he spoke. Sapnap sat next to them and listened to Quackity speak. 

Now that they were all back at their spot and Sapnap had dried off, he began to grow tired, and soon he was fighting to keep his eyes open. Noticing this, Karl wrapped an arm around him and pulled him close, allowing Sapnap to lean on him. Karl was cold and damp, but Sapnap quickly grew used to it and relaxed. 

“What do we do now?” Quackity asked in a whisper. “I know that Nick isn’t the only one of us who’s about to fall asleep, or, already did fall asleep. We shouldn’t try to drive back now.” Karl said, and Quackity nodded, fighting off a yawn as if on cue. “You’re right, but we can’t just sleep here.” Quackity said, and Karl nodded in agreement. “True, but we shouldn’t drive either, and besides, we don’t even know this area.” 

Quackity hummed as he thought about what to do. “Yeah...” He trailed off to shudder. “We can’t just stay here though, the breeze from the ocean’s pretty cold.” Karl agreed. “We shouldn’t stay outside all night, period, unless you wanna get sick.” Quackity shook his head. “No, but we can’t just stay in the car either.” He said, and Karl sighed. “Tell you what, you look up nearby hotels that are still open and I’ll drive us there. We’ll figure out what to do in the morning.” Quackity gave Karl a thumbs up and stood up. “Alright, let’s go.” 

Together, Quackity and Karl lifted Sapnap between them, as it was apparent that he wasn’t going to wake up no matter what they did, and eventually they just gave up on trying to wake him. They carried him to the car and set him in the backseat and then went back for their other belongings. Karl got into the drivers seat and turned on the car while Quackity opened his phone and looked up hotels that were in the area. Eventually he found one that was only a five minute drive from the beach, and he called the number.

“Hello? Hi, yeah, do you have any rooms available?” Quackity asked after a short pause. “Okay... uh, three people... can we pay at the desk?... okay, thank you.” When he hung up, Quackity looked over to Karl. “There’s a room available but it’s kind of expensive.” He said, and Karl nodded. “How expensive?” He asked. “Like $150 per night expensive.” Quackity said. 

In the end, Karl and Quackity decided to just go to that one hotel, and they would each pay half of the bill. It didn’t take too long to get there, even with Karl driving slower than the speed limit. It was just past three in the morning when he pulled into the parking lot, and they managed to find an open space, but it was kind of far from the building. “Well,” Karl started as he turned off the car, “you should put a shirt on, and try to wake up Nick while I go in and get us a room.” 

Quackity watched Karl walk until he was out of sight behind a row of cars, and then he turned around in his seat to dig through the bag. He pulled out the first top that he found, which was Karl’s lime green Dream hoodie. Quackity bit the inside of his lip as he stared at it. He’d forgotten about the incident with Dream, but like Sapnap said, it didn’t matter at the moment, so Quackity slipped the hoodie on without another thought. 

“Hey, Nick.” Quackity hissed as he placed a hand on Sapnap’s knee. “Nick, wake up!” He called out again when he got no reply. Sapnap didn’t even stir. He could easily look dead if his chest wasn’t rising and falling rhythmically.  “Nick!!” Quackity shouted, shaking Sapnap’s leg. Nothing. Quackity rolled his eyes and crawled into the backseat. He leaned in close to Sapnap’s ear and growled, “Nick! Wake the fuck up!” This time, he jolted awake.

Sapnap hit his head on the ceiling as he tried to scrabble away from Quackity, and Quackity placed his hands on his shoulders to calm him down. Sapnap’s alertness faded as quickly as it had arrived, and pretty soon he was starting to nod off again, but Quackity didn’t let him. “Nick, get out of the car.” He ordered, and Sapnap reluctantly complied. Quackity grabbed their bag and followed Sapnap out of the car. Then, he handed him his hoodie, and Sapnap put it on without even questioning what was going on. 

Next, Quackity saw Karl walking back to the car, and he grabbed Sapnap’s hand, walking with him towards Karl. “I got us a room,” Karl explained, “I paid at the desk, so you owe me Alex.” 

“How much?” Quackity asked as Karl turned around to walk with them back to the building. “$80.35.” He replied, and Quackity whistled through his teeth. “Damn...” 

Karl led Quackity and Sapnap, who was practically asleep on his feet, up to their room. It was on the fourth floor of the building, and about halfway down the hallway. Karl handed Quackity a room key after they were inside. It was a nice room. There were two beds, and a window overlooked the surrounding area, including a view of the ocean in the distance. There was a small TV on a table on the wall opposite the beds, and between the two beds there was another small table that supported a lamp and an outlet. On the left, as soon as you walked in, there was a bathroom. 

Quackity set the bag down next to the television and allowed Sapnap to collapse onto one of the beds. Almost as soon as he hit the pillows, he passed out again. “I’m gonna take a shower.” Karl yawned, and Quackity looked over at him. “Me too, I feel really gritty, most of all through, I need to brush my fucking teeth.” He stated, making a face. 

“Alright, I’m leaving the door unlocked so if you need anything, don’t be shy.” Karl said before walking into the bathroom. Quackity waited a couple minutes before cracking the door open. “Where are you?” He asked, keeping his eyes locked on the floor. “You’re fine, come in.” Karl replied, and Quackity hesitantly opened the door all the way. 

The first thing that Quackity did was speed over to the sink. Hotels usually had soap already set out, so he thought that there was a chance that there was toothpaste or something. Anything. But there wasn’t. With a groan, Quackity just turned the sink on, and after a couple seconds of letting the water run, he stuck his face under the faucet to collect a mouthful of water. 

Quackity swished the water around in his mouth for a moment, and then spat it back out into the sink. Then, he just stared at himself for a minute or two until Karl stuck his head out from behind the shower curtain to see what he was doing. “You good, Alex?” He asked, and Quackity jumped. “Yeah, sorry I just zoned out. I’m so fucking tired.” He chuckled. Karl retreated back behind the curtain. “I’ll hurry up then, I’m almost done.” 

Quackity remained in the bathroom, exhausted and not wanting to move, until the water turned off and he forced himself to leave to give Karl privacy. Quackity then took off Karl’s hoodie and flung himself onto the empty bed. He pulled out his phone and started scrolling through Twitter while he waited for Karl to come out. His feed was plagued with posts about the stream, and a number of his friends had messaged him, but he didn’t reply, because that’s what Sapnap wanted. 

Quackity then heard the bathroom room open, and he set his phone down and began to sit up until Karl came into view. He wore nothing but a towel around his waist, and his clothes were bundled under one of his arms. “Uh,” he started, flustered, while Quackity just stared, “we didn’t bring any clean clothes with us, did we?” Gaze shamelessly locked on Karl’s build, Quackity shook his head. “No,” he replied, “but I thought I saw a Dollar Tree on the way here, maybe they have clothes?” 

“Are they even open? And I don’t want to ask you to drive anywhere now, it’s already almost four, and we need to be out of here by eleven.”

“You’re not asking me anything, I’ll go check it out.” 

And so, Quackity grabbed the car keys and his wallet, slipped Karl’s hoodie back on, and walked back out to the elevator. He was beyond tired, and stopped at a vending machine to buy an energy drink. Then, he walked out to the car, turned it on, rolled the window down, and chugged the beverage. 

Quackity felt a like a gross mixture of being too tired, wide awake, and crusty from dried salt, but the Dollar Tree was only a couple minutes away, and soon he pulled into the parking lot. Luckily, it was open, so he walked in. 

Walking into the store felt like stepping into another reality. It was so bright, and something in the back was humming. There was a single cashier, and she had a look of concern on her face when she saw Quackity. He must really look like something else, with his disheveled hair, bright hoodie and swimming shorts. 

Quackity wandered through the aisles, wondering if the lady thought he was drunk, and scoffed. That wasn’t right, right? 

Finally, he came into the aisle that held clothes. It was mostly swimming stuff and other summer clothes, but it was better than nothing. Quackity quickly grabbed a button up with little palm tree designs on it and three pairs of baggy shorts before approaching the check out area. 

No words were exchanged between him and the woman, and Quackity was glad. If he tried to talk now, he would probably both look and sound impaired. 

When Quackity eventually stumbled back to the hotel room, the lights were off, but the television was on, playing some kind of baking show on mute. Quackity’s exhausted mind fixated on the screen, where a man was attempting to finish frosting a cake before the timer ran out. “Hey, you’re back.” Karl whispered, and Quackity nearly jumped out of his skin. “Yeah,” Quackity slurred as he stumbled to the bed to sit next to Sapnap’s still sleeping form, “I got a shirt and some shorts.” 

Karl took the clothes from Quackity and walked into the bathroom to change. When he came out again, he was wearing the button up and a pair of the shorts, which Quackity now realized to be for swimming, but it didn’t matter. 

Within the next couple minutes, Quackity had lay down and fallen asleep next to Sapnap. They were pressed up against the edge of the bed for some reason, and after turning the television off and setting an alarm for 10:00 am, Karl just decided to screw it and get into bed with them so that Sapnap was in the middle. When Karl pulled the blanket over them, he felt Sapnap wrap his arms around his torso, and smiled to himself. 

They may be in an unknown town in an unfamiliar hotel with nothing but towels, a couple blankets, and about a remaining $50 in all of their combined wallets, but there was nowhere else that Karl would rather be. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi god, it’s me again, mr. “I’m gonna take a break from writing but writing is actually my coping mechanism so I basically just lied”


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sapnap brings everyone home.

  
It was warm. Very warm. Something was pressed against Sapnap’s back, wrapping around him and making him warm, and something else was pressed against his front, making him even warmer. There was a bright light shining onto his eyes through a crack in the unfamiliar window curtains. The room smelled sweet, like fresh sheets, and vaguely salty, like the ocean.

Sapnap wanted to get up, but the arms around his torso and the leg resting on top of his legs prevented him from doing so, so Sapnap was trapped here for the time being. Unfortunate, really, because he was hungry and really needed to pee. 

Sapnap raised his head, trying to see where he was. The walls were plain and cream, and the dull purple curtains on the window did not belong to him. Neither did that TV, or the other  _ empty _ bed in the room. Nothing here looked familiar. Beginning to worry, Sapnap tried to shift out of whoever’s arms he was in, but to no avail, so he just gave in and collapsed back down. Someone let out a small groan next to him, and the arms around Sapnap’s waist tightened only slightly. 

_“Buenos días,_ Nick~” Someone murmured directly into Sapnap’s ear, his voice gravely with sleep.

Sapnap let out a surprised scream and tried to shove himself away from the voice, but he just succeeded in slamming his body into the other person and sending them to the floor with a thud. The person on the floor groaned and sat up, his hair disheveled and sticking up in some places. The other man still on the bed was trying and failing to hold back laughter. 

“Oh god, Karl are you okay?” Sapnap questioned as he leaned over the side of the bed, suddenly wide awake. Karl sighed, rubbing the back of his head. “I’m okay. At least I’m awake now..” He mumbled. Quackity had stopped laughing by now, and shuffled over to sit beside Sapnap, resting his head on Sapnap’s shoulder. “What time is it?” Quackity wondered through a small yawn, and Karl stood and walked around the end of the bed to grab his phone. 

When it turned on, his expression turned from slightly annoyed and groggy with sleep to panicked. “What is it?” Sapnap asked worriedly, and Karl looked over to him and Quackity. “The alarm didn’t work. It’s after 10:30, and we have literally ten minutes to get out of here.” He explained, and Quackity practically shot off the bed while yelling, “Shit!” through his teeth. 

Sapnap just sat on the bed, looking confused as Karl searched the room for any items that they might forget. “What’s going on?” He asked, and Karl paused his search. “I’ll explain in the car, we need to leave, now.” 

It took less than two minutes to get all of their belongings together, and then Karl was swiftly leading Sapnap and Quackity out of the hotel. Karl had ran ahead down the stairs to return the room keys while Sapnap and Quackity took the elevator. The ride down was quiet except for the soft humming of the elevator, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. Soon, they arrived in the lobby. 

Karl was waiting patiently for them by the front doors, looking on his phone, but he perked up when he saw Quackity and Sapnap. “Before we leave, can I like, use a bathroom?” Sapnap asked, and Karl nodded. “Of course, you don’t have to ask.” He said, and Sapnap walked off. 

“What’s up? You look troubled.” Quackity noted, not missing a beat, and Karl shrugged, slightly flushed. “It’s nothing, I know Nick doesn’t wanna talk about it but I’ve gotten at least twenty messages from our friends and I’m going to go feral if we don’t address it.” Karl muttered under his breath, and Quackity took one of Karl’s hands in his own, caressing the back of his hand with his thumb. 

“I think he just meant talking about it with the fans, but either way, if you wanna tell our friends, nothing’s stopping you. I don’t want to chain you down, and I know Nick feels the exact same way.” Quackity told him, and Karl nodded, planting a light kiss on Quackity’s forehead despite the two or three people looking at them with contempt. “Thank you.” He whispered. 

Finally, Sapnap returned, trotting up to Karl and Quackity with a tired smile on his face. “Alright, let’s go home.” He said. The other’s couldn’t agree more.

While Sapnap drove, Quackity once again being the navigator, Karl filled Sapnap in on what happened after he fell asleep, and explained how they’d rented a room at the hotel because it was 3 am and neither one of them could be trusted to drive the two hours back to Houston. 

About ten minutes into the drive, Quackity began complaining about the fact that they hadn’t eaten anything yet, and Sapnap was forced into pulling over at a McDonald’s to save them from Quackity bothering them. 

Sapnap drove through the drive through, and after they ordered, he just parked in the parking lot to wait for their food. Already it was hot, and the car heated up far too quickly. Even the windows being rolled down did little to help. “Fuck...” Quackity groaned as he stuck his head out of the window. “I forgot your stupid AC was broken in here.” Sapnap shrugged apologetically. “Sorry.” He offered, but Quackity dismissed him with a wave of his hand. 

When their food arrived, Quackity perked up like a plant that had finally been watered after months of neglect. Of course, Quackity was also the one that nearly threw up in the car because he was eating too fast and hardly chewing. After that, he was banished to sit outside and drink water until permitted to get back in the car. 

Finally, they were back on the road. “Hey, do you guys want me to put on some music?” Sapnap asked, and Quackity nodded. “Yeah, sure.” He said, and Karl agreed. “Alright, uh, Alex can you plug my phone into this-“ he held up a cord “-and then go to my Spotify and play the one called ‘My Playlist’?” Sapnap asked. “Yup.” Quackity muttered as he did what he was told. There was a moment of silence, and then music started to play.

_ “Long black tulips.” _

_ “Born in your blue tints.” _

Oh of course. Of course this song would play first. This was embarrassing. 

_ “Lemongrass eyelids.” _

_ “Smoke in your slick lips.” _

Sapnap just kept his eyes on the road as he drove, not wanting to know what kind of expression either of his boyfriends was making. He’d actually memorized this song long ago, and found himself singing along under his breath. Out of the corner of his eye Sapnap saw Quackity drumming his fingers on his thigh, a small grin on his face. “So you liked the song.” Karl stated from the back, and Sapnap blushed. “Karl, if you look at my Spotify statistics, I’ve probably listened to that song at least 500 times. I can’t get it out of my head.” Sapnap admitted, and then he turned the volume up. 

Eventually Sapnap pulled into his own driveway, and by then, he was ready for a shower and a nap. They’d stopped at the gas station on the way back to get Monsters and movie snacks for a movie ‘date’ that they’d planned on the drive. It was just going to be them cuddling on the couch and watching movies, but Sapnap did not want to be falling asleep during the event. 

When he got out of the car, Sapnap stretched and let out a yawn. Karl carried their bag of towels that they’d brought with them, and Quackity held the bag of stuff from the gas station. After locking the car, Sapnap walked up the path to his doorstep, Karl and Quackity following behind him. 

Before he’d even unlocked the door, Sapnap could hear Cash barking, and he smiled. “Hey!!” He called out fondly as he pulled the door open, crouching down to pet Cash, who’s tail was wagging a million miles an hour. “I missed you, buddy!” Sapnap cooed before Cash raced excitedly back into the house. Quackity walked ahead of Karl and Sapnap, set his bag down on the floor, and shouted out, “I’m taking a shower!” 

Karl picked up Quackity’s bag as he took off his shoes and walked into the kitchen to put the things that needed to be refrigerated in the fridge. Sapnap locked the door behind him and followed Karl into the kitchen. When Karl turned and smiled at him, Sapnap’s heart did a backflip, and he walked up to Karl as he closed the fridge. “Thank you.” Sapnap said, and Karl gave him a confused look. “For what?”

“For driving to the hotel and paying for a room. For being an amazing person, and for loving me.” Sapnap said, looking down with embarrassment as the cheesy words left his mouth. Karl smiled and gently gripped Sapnap’s chin, making him turn to face him. Karl snuck his hand around to the back of Sapnap’s head and pulled him closer, softly connecting their lips. 

It was an incredibly tender kiss, so soft and loving that Sapnap truly thought that he was going to either cry or just pass away on the spot. Finally, they had to break away from each other. “You’re welcome.” Karl whispered, and Sapnap’s heart did another flip, except this time it felt like it had jumped off of the edge of the tallest building in the entire world. “I love you.” Sapnap said, and Karl pressed their foreheads together while wrapping his arms around Sapnap’s waist. 

“I love you more.” 

Sapnap hugged Karl back, lightly tracing small shapes on his back. The sound of the shower running could be heard faintly, and for once, Sapnap felt like he was truly home. Sure, it was his house, he lived here, but it had always felt like it was missing something, and now Sapnap knew what that something was. It was Karl. Karl and Quackity. They were soulmates, he knew it. He’d never been more sure of anything before his entire life.

For the first time in his life, Sapnap was home. 


	19. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The end (?)

  
“I’ll miss you.”

“I’ll miss you too baby.” 

Sapnap blushed at the stupid pet name. “Shut up..” He mumbled, and Quackity smirked. The week had passed by in a blur, and somehow the three of them had all grown even closer to each other. But now they had to part. 

Karl’s flight left in ten minutes, and Quackity’s in fifteen, so they were spending their last moments together talking and just enjoying each other’s presence. “We’re going to do this again.” Sapnap stated, and Quackity scoffed. “Hell yeah we are, what? You thought you scared us away that easily?” He questioned, and Sapnap smiled to himself. “Of course not.” He replied.

Over the past days, they hadn’t left the house, and had just played games or watched movies together. Chill stuff. They still hadn’t interacted with anyone besides their friends, who promised not to tell the fans until Sapnap, Karl and Quackity were ready, and the three of them had received a huge amount of support. Overall, life had been good.

“Hey,” Karl started softly as he noticed Sapnap’s down expression, “don’t worry. We’re gonna talk every day, and after everything’s all cleared up, we can stream together. Who knows, maybe we can even meet up again before summer’s over.” Sapnap smiled and hugged Karl, who immediately hugged back. “I know,” Sapnap mumbled, “but I’m still gonna miss you. It’s not gonna be the same without you.” 

Karl didn’t reply. He just kissed the top of Sapnap’s head reassuringly and held him close. Of course, people were staring, and even more people started staring when Quackity let himself in on the hug as well. And then, over the intercom, “This is the final boarding call for passenger Karl Jacobs booked on flight 372A to North Carolina. Please proceed to gate 3 immediately...” Quackity cursed under his breath as Karl pulled away. “Well, that’s me,” he stated with embarrassment, “I love you, and I’ll see you soon. Bye! I love you!” He started to briskly walk away, but Sapnap caught his arm and turned him around. Before Karl could object, Sapnap quickly pressed a light kiss onto Karl’s cheek before letting him go. “I love you too.” He said. Karl nodded, not trusting himself to speak, and continued to speed away to prevent himself from breaking down. 

Quackity walked up next to Sapnap and held one of his hands. Then, he chuckled. “Hey, what are the odds that some prick comes up to us and tells us to stop holding hands because there are children here?” He joked, and Sapnap rolled his eyes, once again endlessly grateful for Quackity’s ability to make any situation a little more bearable. “Alex, promise you’ll call as soon as you get home.” 

“I might have to unpack some of my shit and tell my mom about what happened, but yeah, I promise.” Quackity replied as he tipped his head to the side to rest it against Sapnap’s. “Feeling up for streaming finally?” Sapnap shrugged. “Honestly, I just don’t wanna panic about it again, that was fucking horrible, but yeah, I think I’ll be ready.” Quackity nodded and closed his eyes, sighing contentedly. “Good. And I’ll be there too. I promise.” 

“But-“

“No buts, we may be really far away from each other, but I’m always gonna be there, got it? If you need me to fly out here just because you want a hug, I will drop everything and do that.” 

“But then you’d probably get kicked out of law school.”

“You and Karl are far more important than me being a lawyer.” Quackity said, but Sapnap pulled away and shook his head. “No, don’t say that. You should always value yourself above others.” Quackity smiled and shuffled back over to Sapnap. “I love you.” He mumbled, and Sapnap brushed his bangs aside to kiss his forehead. “Love you too.” Sapnap responded as he squeezed Quackity’s hand, pulling it up to his mouth to also kiss his knuckles. “I’ll always love you.” Sapnap added, savoring the cute way that Quackity turned red and looked down. 

“Stop it.. you’re gonna get me all riled up.” He breathed out, and Sapnap smirked against his knuckles. “Would that really be a bad thing?” He taunted. Quackity rolled his eyes. “Yes, we’re in public, and my flight leaves in like five minutes.” Sapnap’s expression dropped, and he was about to say something before Quackity used his free hand to grip Sapnap’s chin and pull them towards each other, roughly connecting their lips. 

Sapnap’s eyes fluttered shut as he kissed back, moving his mouth against Quackity’s like they’d done this thousands of times before. Neither one of them cared that they were in the middle of a busy airport anymore, the only thing that mattered was each other. Sapnap only pulled away when Quackity started lightly nipping at his lip. “We’re still in public, remember?” He reminded, smirking as Quackity attempted to chase after him. 

“I can’t just stand here and watch you be sad, and I  _ needed _ to do that at least once before I left.” Quackity muttered, looking at Sapnap with a certain look in his eyes. Sapnap flushed and bit his lip, adverting his gaze. “Fuck, don’t make that expression or I’m going to willingly miss my flight to stay with you.” Sapnap felt himself turning even more red as Quackity said that, and he backed away, trying to ignore the feeling of half of the people in the airport looking at him. 

“I don’t want you to leave but please don’t miss your flight.” Sapnap said, and Quackity’s expression morphed into something sadder. “Yeah, I should probably board now...” He said, and Sapnap nodded sadly. “Yeah, I’ll miss you, and I love you.” 

“I love you too baby.” Quackity grabbed one of Sapnap’s hands and kissed the back of his palm. It was a light motion, without a hint of the desperation in the previous kiss. It was like a moth had landed on Sapnap’s hand, but the feeling of Quackity’s lips on his skin lingered as they said their final goodbyes and Sapnap watched as Quackity walked away. That was it. He was gone. Karl’s plane was probably already leaving the airport, and soon Quackity would join him. 

When Sapnap got into his car, he locked the doors and pressed his head against the steering wheel. He couldn’t help himself. He cried. He didn’t know why he was crying, the last week had been the best week of his entire life, but he cried, and he couldn’t stop.

It was a Twitter notification that brought Sapnap back to earth, and he pulled away from his steering wheel, wiping away the tears that had fallen on the leather.  _“@sapnap @Quackity I’ll see you soon <3”_ Karl had tweeted. Sapnap’s lip wobbled, but he forced himself to calm down. It was time to come out of hiding.

_ “Hey guys, sorry I’ve been gone, some stuff came up-“ _

Sapnap drove home, keeping his eyes on the road, ignoring his phone blowing up with notifications.

_ “-I wanted to acknowledge what Dream said on the stream last week, and I want to say-“ _

When Sapnap got home, he sat in his car for a moment, feeling devoid of emotion. Devoid of life. He needed to take a shower.

_ “-that nothing’s wrong, and I’m not fighting with anyone. I’ve actually never been better because Karl, Quack and I are dating :)” _

Sapnap got out of his car and locked it behind him. Then, he walked up to his door and gently unlocked it. When he entered his house, Cash ran up to him, tail wagging, and jumped up on his legs before walking past him, sniffing around. Sapnap’s heart broke a little bit. “Sorry bud, they’re gone.” He mumbled. He walked into the kitchen and leaned against the counter where Quackity had every morning while Karl made coffee. He stared at the drying mugs in the dish rack, imagining that either Quackity or Karl would walk into the kitchen at that moment and grab one so that he could drink an afternoon cup of coffee, but that wouldn’t happen anymore. 

Sapnap sighed and tilted his head back to look up at the ceiling. And then his phone started ringing. Sapnap answered almost right away. “Karl? Aren’t you on the plane?” He exclaimed, and Karl’s voice was a little choppy when he replied, “Yeah, but it’s fine. I wanted to talk to you before I lose connection.” 

“I’m glad, um, how’s it going?”

“It’s good, but Nick, stop fretting about us being gone. I can hear it in your voice, you’re upset, but just know that we’ll always be there for you.” 

Sapnap nodded and felt like his throat was closing up. He was going to cry again. “Thanks, I love you.” He replied after a moment. “I love you too, and hey- eft someth.. you.” Karl said. “Karl, you’re cutting out.” Sapnap said. “-Ook by you- bedsi.. table.” Karl replied, and then the call disconnected. 

Sapnap waited a couple moments before actually pulling his phone away from his head, but after that he was quick to speed to his bedroom. On his table was the note that Quackity and Karl had left for him on day one when he’d been asleep, but something was underneath it. He picked up the first note and quickly read over it again. 

_ “ What happened in the car wasn’t your fault. Get some sleep, you deserve it, when you wake up, we’re in the living room. Won’t talk about it if you don’t want too, love you. _

_ \- K & A” _

It was stupid, but he was still going to cherish it. He set it aside and looked at what it had been hiding. Three seashells and another note. Sapnap felt himself tearing up, and plopped onto his bed as he looked at the shells. There was his scallop shell, the first one that Karl had found, and the white and black one, which Quackity had discovered. He picked up the note. 

_ “It looked like you forgot about these after you woke up, so we thought we’d surprise you. Apparently the white one is from a really rare snail, so we wanted you to have it, because you’re so special to us. I know you said that I should keep mine, but I’m giving it to you so you’ll always-“ _

Here, the handwriting changed styles.

_ “Just take the shells and don’t ask questions, I just saved you from some really gross cheesy shit by writing this to take up paper space so you better thank me. I-“ _

The next few words were just scribbles, like someone had been pulling the paper away, and the line of lead going off of the page and the crinkled corner supported this theory. 

_ “We love you. _

_ Love, Karl and Alex.” _

On the edge of the paper, there was a small scribbled sentence that had been smudged out, but Sapnap could vaguely make out the words,  _“Karl stole the paper from me, asshole :(“_ and he laughed, feeling so much better than before. 

Sapnap set this note next to the other one and gently picked up the shells. He then set them on his desk next to his setup, so he’d always be able to look at them when he was streaming or doing anything with his friends. Sapnap’s spirits were no longer down, because he knew that there was more of this waiting to unfold in the future. There would be more joking. There would be more loving. There would be more adventures, and late night drives, and seashells. And Sapnap would always be waiting for his boys to come home to him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This isn’t actually the last chapter btw, it’s not over yet ,:)


	20. Chapter 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sapnap gets a special surprise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for a huge break between chapters, I got hit with a ton of writer’s block and inspiration for another fic ;;

  
“Karl! Help me!” Sapnap screamed into his mic. A baby zombie was chasing him as he was on one and half hearts with a ton of good stuff in his inventory. A second later, Karl’s Minecraft avatar bounded over to Sapnap and saved him from certain death. Sapnap released a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding and grinned at his screen. It had been almost a year since they’d started dating, and today was Sapnap’s first day of his summer break from college, so of course he was playing Minecraft with Karl.

“Thank you, my knight in shining armor.” Sapnap cooed, and Karl began punching him in the game, but he was giggling through the mic. “Karl I’m at- KARL I HAVE A HALF A-!!” Sapnap started to scream, but Karl had already inadvertently killed him. Sapnap grew silent as Karl’s laughing continued. “I’m sorry!” Karl then said, and Sapnap couldn’t help but smile. “It’s okay,” he replied, “can you grab my shit though? I had some good loot.” 

“Of course princess.” Karl teased, and Sapnap groaned. “Oh god, I’m sorry Karl but please never say that again, especially when I’m streaming.” Sapnap was grateful that his face cam was off, because his face was incredibly red and he would rather his stream not tease him for it.

“Sorry.” Karl said again, and Sapnap sighed. “You don’t have to apologize.” Sapnap replied, and Karl hummed in acknowledgement. They’d been playing for maybe an hour already, and it had been pretty mellow the entire time.

“It’s too bad Alex can’t join us.” Sapnap muttered for probably the fifth time in the past ten minutes. “Yeah,” Karl replied through a sigh, “but he said he’d be back in.. later today or tomorrow I think.” Sapnap nodded and leaned back in his chair, failing to notice the obvious excitement in Karl’s voice. “Yeah, I suppose we can’t keep him to ourselves all the time, man’s got other family too.” Sapnap chuckled, and Karl agreed through his own laughter. 

It didn’t take too long for Sapnap to get his stuff back, and after that he and Karl went to do different things on the server. They were playing on the world that they’d made a year ago with Quackity, and it was coming along very nicely. 

There was their house, of course, but now it was accompanied by a tower that Karl and Quackity had built, a huge wheat farm, a dirt hut that Dream had built for himself when he’d been invited to the server, and now Sapnap was working on making a mine while Quackity was in the process of making a sign in the sky that painfully resembled the ‘you <3 little penis’ sign in the Dream SMP. 

Almost as soon as Sapnap arrived at his in-progress mine, he heard someone knock on his front door, and he paused. “What’s up?” Karl asked as the person knocked again. “Someone’s knocking on my door.” Sapnap replied. “Answer it, I can entertain your stream.” Karl said, and Sapnap removed his headset and stood, wondering who it could be. 

Sapnap left his room and walked to his door. Cash was pacing around, and Sapnap picked him up so he wouldn’t run outside if he opened the door. Then, Sapnap peered through the peephole. He nearly passed out when he saw who it was, and set Cash down again before practically ripping the door open. “What the fuck-?!” Sapnap exclaimed as the other man grinned. A couple strands of black hair were tucked underneath his beanie before he was pulled into a tight hug. 

Quackity laughed and hugged Sapnap back, burying his face in the other’s neck. They stood like that for a couple minutes before Sapnap pulled him inside. “You should have told me you were coming, I thought you were visiting family in Nevada!” Sapnap said, and Quackity smirked as he crouched down to pet an excited Cash. “Yeah, I was, but we flew back home like a week ago. I’ll let Karl explain.” He said with a wink. 

Sapnap couldn’t believe this was happening. It felt like a dream. But deep down he knew it was real. Quackity was here, again, in his house. “Do you have any stuff with you?” Sapnap asked, and Quackity shook his head. “Nope, like I said, I’ll let Karl explain, I know you’re streaming right now, so let’s go?” He said, and Sapnap just went along with it as they walked to his room.

When they arrived, Sapnap slumped into his chair and Quackity leaned over his shoulder, resting his chin on Sapnap’s head after he put the headset back on. “Uh, Karl I think you have some explaining to do.” Sapnap said, and Karl began giggling almost manically while chat grew confused. “What do you mean?” Karl then asked, feigning innocence, and Sapnap let out a huff of laughter. “I mean like, Quackity showing up at my doorstep out of nowhere without any bags on him, telling me that you’d explain?” 

Karl relapsed into another fit of giggles, and Sapnap grinned widely. “Karl? Our boyfriend? Ring a bell?” He teased, and Quackity leaned in close to Sapnap’s mic, his breath hitting Sapnap’s lips as he spoke. “Yeah Karl, did you forget about me already? I saw you like five hours ago man, come on.” Quackity said, and Sapnap’s eyes widened. “You guys met up and didn’t tell me?” He asked, a little hurt, and Quackity quickly wrapped his arms around him, pulling him into another hug while securing himself a seat on Sapnap’s lap.

“No, of course not baby. Surprise! We haven’t seen each other in a long time so Karl put together something exciting.” Quackity said in a low voice, so Sapnap’s viewers wouldn’t be able to clearly hear him. Then, louder, he asked, “Right Karl?” 

“Right what?”

“We haven’t seen each other in a long time so you put together something exciting.” Quackity repeated, and Karl breathed out an, “Oh-!” as he properly heard what Quackity had said. “Yeah! Surprise Nick! I bought you and Alex plane tickets to North Carolina!” Sapnap thought that he was free from the worry of passing out, but he was wrong, and a second later he slumped over, unconscious, but only for about five seconds. He returned to reality to find Quackity laughing hysterically while gripping Sapnap’s shoulder to prevent himself from falling onto the floor.

“What happened?” Karl asked as Sapnap’s face flushed red. “Nothing.” He murmured as Quackity’s laughter ceased. “I can’t believe you did that..” He then said, trying to change the subject. Quackity smirked and thankfully said nothing about what had just happened.

“Well,” Karl said, sounding a little sheepish, “you paid for our tickets when we met up for Christmas. I wanted to return the favor.” At that moment, Sapnap failed to remember a moment where he had felt more valued, and he smiled warmly. Chat was going feral, and Quackity laughed as he read over what they were saying. “So,” Sapnap then questioned, “what time and day does my plane leave?” 

There was a moment of silence, and Sapnap began to get a little worried. “Karl..?” He tried, and then Karl was back. He must have deafened. “Yeah?” 

“When is my flight?”

“Uh, I think today at 2:30?” Karl replied, and Sapnap nearly threw Quackity to the floor as he shot up onto his feet. “2:30?! It’s already almost one! Uh- sorry chat but I have to end he stream-!” Before he’d even finished his sentence, the stream was over and he was rummaging around for a suitcase. Quackity watched Sapnap with interest, claiming his chair as Sapnap threw his closet open and began packing. “You should have warned me.” He said to Quackity, who raised his hands in defense as he examined his boyfriend’s desk. “I would have, but it would have ruined the surprise. Besides, we’ll be fine.”

There was a small pause as Sapnap quickly shoved clothes into his suitcase, and then Quackity spun the chair to face him, holding something in his hand. “You kept these?” He asked softly, and Sapnap looked up to see that Quackity was holding the three shells that they’d collected when they went to the beach in the middle of the night. “Why wouldn’t I keep them?” Sapnap asked, and Quackity looked away, blushing slightly. 

“They remind me of you guys. When I can’t see or talk to you, I can look at them and feel better.” Sapnap explained, and Quackity gently set them down again, his touch lingering on the black and white one. “I kept mine too.” He said, and Sapnap stopped packing to look at his boyfriend. “Yeah? Which ones did you get?” He asked, and Quackity smirked to himself. “The other orange one and the pointy brown one.” He said. Sapnap nodded and turned back around.

Then, he felt Quackity’s arms around his waist. His cheek resting on Sapnap’s shoulder blades. His chest pressed against his back. “I missed you.” He whispered, and Sapnap leaned back into his touch. “I missed you more.” 

Quackity smiled and kissed the back of Sapnap’s neck. “That’s not possible.” He said, and Sapnap scoffed. “No it’s not.” He replied, holding Quackity’s hands against his stomach with his own palms. His skin was smooth and warm. “It is. You and Karl never left my mind. I’ve spent the past five months wanting you.” Quackity breathed directly into Sapnap’s ear, Quackity’s closeness sending shivers down his spine. 

“How much time do we have before we actually have to start driving to the airport?” Quackity then asked as his grip on Sapnap’s torso tightened ever so slightly. “I’d say at least a half an hour.” Sapnap replied. Quackity smirked and turned Sapnap around so that they were facing each other, their faces only inches apart. “How about we use that time to finish what we started in the airport last year then?” He asked suggestively. 

It took Sapnap a moment to recall what he was talking about, and when he did remember, he felt his face heat up. Slowly, he nodded. “Yeah.” He mumbled, and then Quackity pulled him into a long awaited kiss. 

Around 1:45 pm, Sapnap and Quackity left the house and called a taxi to drive them to the airport. Sapnap had finished packing, and had made arrangements for someone to take care of the cats and Cash while he was gone. Quackity carried his suitcase for him, a small grin resting on his face. 

It was hot again this year, but not as hot as last year. To Sapnap though, in the turtleneck that he wore, it might as well be a hundred degrees. He hadn’t originally planned to wear the article of clothing, but had been forced too after- 

“Taxi’s here.” Quackity said, snapping Sapnap out of his thoughts. The vehicle pulled up next to the bus stop that the two were waiting at, and Sapnap got into the back with Quackity after putting his suitcase in the back seat. 

The drive to the airport was rather silent, but not awkward, as Sapnap more or less knew the driver, and after some friendly greetings, they were off. As they drove, Quackity looked out of the window, taking in his surroundings with interest. Sapnap found himself staring at Quackity, envying his ability to wear a T-shirt without being embarrassed by purple bruises covering his throat. Of course, Quackity caught him staring multiple times, shooting him with knowing smirks. The day couldn’t get more embarrassing. 

Finally, they arrived at the airport, and Sapnap practically flew out of the car after paying the driver. Quackity grabbed the suitcase despite Sapnap telling him that ‘he could carry his own shit’ and started walking towards the building. The airport wasn’t too busy, and the two were able to maneuver without running anyone over, which was nice.

They waited near where they would need to board until their flight was announced over the speakers, when they stood and began to walk towards their gate. “So you were at Karl’s house earlier?” Sapnap questioned, and Quackity nodded. “Yeah, we’ve been saving up for this trip since January. All the money from donations and subscribers and other jobs have gone towards buying me a plane ticket to North Carolina, I stayed there for a couple days to get settled in, and then a ticket to Texas to get you, and then two tickets for us to go to North Carolina.” Quackity explained. 

“Wow,” Sapnap breathed to himself, “that’s a lot of money. Thank you, I really appreciate this.” He told Quackity, who smiled and looked down at his feet. “Thank Karl, he planned it.” Quackity said. Sapnap grabbed one of his hands, entwining their fingers together. “You helped make it possible.” Sapnap stated, making sure Quackity knew that were would be no arguing about it. 

They were the first two people on the plane, with other passengers following shortly after them, so the two boyfriends were able to sit next to each other, with Sapnap by the window and Quackity in the middle. As they waited for the plane to take off, Sapnap scrolled through Twitter while Quackity texted Karl, telling him that they would be taking off soon. Already, Sapnap’s Twitter feed was stuffed with tweets about ‘the internet’s power trio meeting up again’ and he had to laugh. 

“What’s so funny?” Quackity asked as he leaned over, raising a hand to gently fiddle with the collar of Sapnap’s turtleneck. “Stop it,” Sapnap laughed as he softly swatted his hand away, “and it’s just Twitter. Apparently we’re the internet’s power trio.” He explained, and Quackity chuckled. “Well, it’s true.” He replied with a small grin. Sapnap rolled his eyes and turned back to the window. 

The two day in comfortable silence for a moment as more people boarded the plane. At one point in time, Quackity noticed a younger teen stealing glances at him and Sapnap, and he offered a small wave before the kid ducked into a seat. Then, Quackity nudged Sapnap to get his attention. “Hey, I think someone recognizes us.” He said, and Sapnap peered over the top of the seats. “Huh, cool,” He responded, “sometimes I forget that we’re famous.” Sapnap added with a laugh. 

Within the next couple minutes, there was an announcement, and then they took off. It had been a while since Sapnap had been in a plane, so he was a little nervous at first, but he quickly recovered and calmed down. After a bit, Sapnap leaned against Quackity. “Do you mind if I..?” He asked, trailing off, and Quackity wrapped an arm around his shoulders. “Go for it. You wanna sleep? Use me as a pillow, I don’t mind.” He replied. Sapnap looked up at him. “Thanks.” He muttered. Quackity replied by kissing his forehead. 

Sapnap hadn’t noticed that he’d fallen asleep until Quackity gently shook him awake, and he sat up, disoriented with a somewhat sore back. “We’re almost there.” Quackity explained, and Sapnap nodded in understanding, his pulse racing. Almost there. They were almost to Karl. 

It felt like hours before the plane finally landed, even though it was only about ten minutes. While the other passengers hot off, Sapnap stood and stretched, and Quackity waited for him in the aisle, once again grabbing his suitcase. 

Sapnap walked next to Quackity looking around at everything with interest. He’d never been to North Carolina before, but he could already see from the view from the airport that it was beautiful. “So, where’s Karl?” Sapnap wondered aloud, and Quackity shrugged. “Hell if I know, he said he’d meet us here but I don’t see his tall ass anywhere.” He mumbled as he scanned the crowd. 

“Excuse me?” A small voice said from beside Sapnap, and he glanced over to see a girl, maybe fifteen or sixteen, standing next to them. “Hey,” Sapnap greeted, “what’s up?” He then asked, wondering if she was lost. “Um, you’re Sapnap and Quackity right?” She asked, and Sapnap nodded, smiling. “Yeah!” He replied enthusiastically, and she smiled. “Wow! It’s an honor to meet you guys! I love your content!” She chirped, previous nervousness discarded. Sapnap grinned and held out a hand, which she took right away. “Aw, thank you! It’s lovely to meet you too!” Sapnap replied happily.

“What are you doing in North Carolina though?” The girls then asked, and Quackity replied, “We’re meeting up with Karl Jacobs.” while Sapnap nodded in confirmation. The girl hummed in acknowledgment and nodded. “Cool! Um, this might be a weird question but can I get a picture with you guys?” 

“Of course!” Quackity replied, and the girl pulled her phone out, but before she was able to take the picture, another person interrupted them. 

“Alex! Nick!” Karl shouted, earning a couple dirty looks from other people. He ran up to them and only then took note of the situation. “Oh, sorry I didn’t mean to interrupt.” Karl apologized, but everyone forgave him. After a quick greeting to the girl, the four of them took a picture together and then the girl was called away by her parents. 

Immediately, Karl pulled his boyfriends into a tight hug, and the three of them stood like that for a good minute or two before pulling away. “I missed you.” Sapnap said to Karl, looking up into his eyes lovingly. Karl smiled and blushed. “I missed you too,” he replied softly, “now let’s go home.” 

Karl’s house was nice. It was big, and Sapnap loved it. Quackity walked off with his suitcase, probably depositing it with his own luggage, leaving Karl and Sapnap alone. It was almost 7 pm here, and being in a different time zone felt incredibly weird to Sapnap, but he would get used to it. “Sorry for springing this on you all of a sudden.” Karl said, and Sapnap waved a hand dismissively. “Don’t worry about it, I wouldn’t change a single thing if I could go back in time.” Sapnap told him, feeling his cheeks heat up as he spoke. 

When Quackity returned, Karl led them into the kitchen. “Do you l drink tea? Is it too late for tea?” He questioned as Quackity hoisted himself up onto a counter. “I don’t think it’s too late.” Quackity replied, and Sapnap nodded in agreement. “Good.” Karl said as he filled a kettle with water. He put it on the stove and turned the burner on before walking over a cabinet and pulling out three mugs. “Nick, do you want anything?” He asked, and Sapnap nodded. “Sure, I’ve never really had tea before though.” 

“Well, I’ll have to introduce you. I have some pretty good green tea in here somewhere.” Karl replied, a small content smile on his lips. Sapnap smiled as he watched Karl set the mugs on the counter and stick tea bags in them, wrapping the string round the handles so the water being poured in wouldn’t fully submerge the bag. 

“Do we feel like streaming tonight?” Quackity asked, looking back and forth between Sapnap and Karl. Karl shrugged. “If you guys do, but I don’t know how much jet lag Nick has..” He said, directing his attention to Sapnap. “I guess,” Sapnap said, “if we do, I wanna take a nap first, if that’s okay.” The tea was boiling now, and so Karl brought his attention back to the stove. “Of course it’s okay!” He stated.

Then, Karl handed Quackity a steaming mug of tea before walking over to Sapnap, who had pulled up a stool from behind the countertop. He accepted the tea gratefully and gave Karl a thankful smile. “I’ll show you around in a bit, alright?” Karl promised, and Sapnap nodded. “Okay.” 

The day had started off great, and then it had turned stressful, but now it was back to being great. Better than great. This was the best surprise Sapnap could have gotten. He was endlessly happy to be spending time with his boyfriends. His soulmates. Sure, sometimes they argued, but they’d always resolve any conflicts. Sapnap was confident that they would be by each other’s sides until the end of time, and he was happy.

“What’s so funny?” Quackity asked for the second time that day as he noticed Sapnap smiling to himself. “Nothing,” Sapnap replied happily, embarrassed by how choked up he was getting, “I just.. from the bottom of my heart, I love you.” He told them honestly. 

“We love you too, Nick.” Karl said softly. He set down his tea and walked over to Sapnap, hugging him and peppering the top of his head with kisses. Quackity hopped off of the counter and joined them, closing his eyes contentedly. “Yeah, we love you. We always will. Until the end of time.”

_ ~ The End ~ _


	21. A.N. (Please read!)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thank you. I mean it.

  
Wow, this story’s already over. I honestly can’t believe it. I want to thank everyone for reading this fic, if you got this far, and I’ve said this before but I seriously love each and every one of you. The support I’ve gotten on this work has seriously made my past couple months, and I’m glad that I was able to share my content with everyone. I never expected to get over 500 kudos on Hot Sugar, but I seriously appreciate _everything_. 

I wasn’t able to reply to every comment due to my crushing social awkwardness, but I loved hearing your feedback, and all of your comments made me genuinely happy. 🥺🥺

I don’t really know what else to say, I never thought I’d get this far lmao))

Unfortunately, Hot Sugar isn’t going to have a sequel because I feel like a sequel would just be another version of the first part except it starts at chapter 10 and is just another twenty chapters of even poorer writing. 😅

Once again, thank you endlessly for reading this fic. Have a good day/night and I’ll see you when my next fic is ready to be published. ;)

Also _Thnks fr th Mmrs_ by Fall Out Boy is playing while I’m writing this, which I think fits the moment.   
  


  
Thank you from the depths of my soul,

Frosty_sun ❤️


	22. Bonus!!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is actually how I wanted the confession scene to go, so I decided to write it out and add it at the end here :))

  
Sapnap sat on the couch, Karl on his left, Quackity on his right as he struggled to pay attention to the movie that they were watching. The sky was dark, and the house was silent apart from the voices and music coming from the television. Karl was sitting on the end of the couch, with a couple inches between himself and Sapnap, but Quackity was practically sitting on Sapnap’s lap, occasionally dipping his head down to rest his cheek on Sapnap’s shoulder.

Sapnap’s pulse was racing, and he didn’t know what to do. If he scooted away, it would be awkward, and if he returned the affection, it would be awkward. He hoped Quackity couldn’t feel how hot he felt... “Are you alright?” Quackity then whispered to him, and Sapnap bit his lip, flushing as he looked away. “I’m fine.” He said. Not fine. Not fine. He was obviously lying.

Quackity rolled his eyes. “Tell me what’s on your mind.” He said, and now Karl was interested in the conversation, movie forgotten. “Yeah, what’s up? Karl put in, and Sapnap sighed. “Can I.. tell you guys something..?” He whispered, deciding to just say fuck it and tell them. He wouldn’t be able to spend a week bottling up his feeling if these two were constantly around him. 

“Of course.” Karl said softly at the same time as Quackity said, “Yeah, ‘course.” Sapnap sucked in a breath, wringing his hands together. To them, he probably looked like he had a violent fever. Sapnap could feel the heat emitting from his  _own_ face, so he didn’t want to imagine what the other two could detect.

“Um, well, don’t hate me, please.” 

“Nick,” Karl started, his voice firm, as he placed a hand on Sapnap’s shoulder, “there’s nothing you could do to make us hate you. Ever. If you told us right now that you murdered someone and needed help hiding the body, we’d still love you.” Sapnap didn’t know how to reply, he wanted to cry. He didn’t deserve these two men... “Hell yeah,” Quackity agreed, “you need to hide a body? We’ll fucking help you!” He laughed, and Sapnap felt a lot better. 

“Well, this isn’t as bad as hiding a body, but...” Still, he hesitated. Who wouldn’t? “Well, would you still not hate me if I... if I saidIhadacrushonyou?” Both Karl and Quackity just stared at him, not speaking, until Quackity broke the silence. “Nick, sorry dude, but I have no idea what you just said.” He told Sapnap through small chuckles. “Would you still not hate me if I said I had a crush on you?” Sapnap asked again, forcing himself to speak slower. 

Quackity’s laughter ceased, and Sapnap felt Karl wrap his arms around his shoulders. “No.. no Nick, we’d never hate you for that.” Karl said to him, and Sapnap turned to him and buried his head under Karl’s chin, shakily hugging him back. Quackity joined in on the hug too, one arm around Karl’s shoulders, the other around Sapnap as he rubbed his shoulder reassuringly. 

“I kinda knew.” Quackity admitted, and Sapnap froze, beginning to worry, but Quackity’s thumb tracing circles on his clothed back helped him to calm down. “You were never subtle, and after that stream, I kinda figured it out.” Quackity continued, and Sapnap felt himself turn red once more. He didn’t need to be reminded of that day....

Karl nodded against Sapnap’s head, pulling him even closer. “I kept in contact with Alex so much that I figured it out too.” He said, and Sapnap was sure that he would pass out then and there, that’s now relieved he was to not have to suffer through his friends’ judgement. 

“Do you, think that we could...?” Sapnap then asked, trailing off. They would know what he meant. Quackity sighed, his chest expanding against Sapnap’s back as he spoke, “I- if Karl’s okay with it,” he mumbled almost hopefully, “I don’t care if this is selfish but I really want this to work.” 

Both Sapnap and Quackity then turned to Karl, waiting expectantly for a reply. In the dim light, Karl’s cheeks turned pink as he stumbled over what to say. “I- I um, I’m not really sure about it, but for you guys, I’ll try to give it a try.” Sapnap pulled away from Karl chest to look him in the eye. “Thank you.” He whispered, and Karl leaned towards him, pressing their foreheads together. “Anything.” He replied in an equally hushed tone. Sapnap was a little confused by his answer, but he didn’t say anything about it.

This felt like a dream... this didn’t seem real. But it was. And Sapnap had never felt happier. He’d gotten what he’d been longing for. This was the best day of his life. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Have y’all listened to CG5’s Dream Team song yet? If not, god, please go do that, it’s so good-


End file.
